


you make my darkness tremble

by acrookedsaint



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty POV, F/M, Grudges, Mystery, Romance, Secrets, au: nine years later, i went full beggie and i'm not sorry, if you want romantic barchie this is not the fic for you, jeronica romance, that kind of thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-18 10:55:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21509902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acrookedsaint/pseuds/acrookedsaint
Summary: They have the money from the house, Betty and Archie, and tonight they’re leaving Riverdale, getting as far away from all the monsters that have crept out of the shadows ever since Clifford Blossom murdered his own son in cold blood.  Tonight they’re driving away from mother’s who stole college funds and friends who can’t understand the darkness inside of them. They’re driving away from Riverdale in the car that they’d restored earlier that summer, before Archie went to jail, before Veronica opened a speakeasy, and before Jughead got swept up into things he simply couldn’t control.--Betty and Archie return to a new Riverdale after nine years away. They encounter a different town, full of different people. But perhaps the most drastic change is within Jughead and Veronica, who share a lot more than they did nine years ago. Romance and grudges, secrets and mysteries: the more everything changes, it seems, the more everything stays the same in Riverdale.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper (minor), Betty Cooper/Reggie Mantle, Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge
Comments: 88
Kudos: 151





	1. prologue: the lovers

Betty clutched tightly at the steering wheel, gripping it for dear life. The road was dark, lit up only by the dim glow of the car’s headlights. It had been a long time since she’d driven down this road. In fact, the last time had been when she was sixteen, still reeling from everything that had happened nine years ago and desperately needing to escape. 

Out of habit she glanced at the red headed man in the passenger seat. Archie was asleep, in exactly the same position he’d been in for the last few hours, gentle puffs of air coming out through his nose. He wasn’t as scared as she was, just apprehensive. After all, there was a reason why they’d fled.

Riverdale had once been the only home that either of them had ever known. A lot had changed since then.

Betty had grown up in New York. No one was trying to kill her. There were no crazy gangs or murdering parents or drug rings. She had graduated high school, and then college, and now she was a lawyer at a rather successful firm.

She was doing well.

And her love life was looking up too. She and Archie had been dating for five months now, since he’d kissed her under the mistletoe at her office Christmas party and they’d had messy, drunken sex in the backseat of his car.

And that was great.

But still…Riverdale was the home of a lot of the people that she and Archie had hurt by moving away. She still remembered the last time that she’d spoken to Jughead Jones the Third. He’d looked so broken, so devastated to learn that she planned to move to New York with the guy that she’d been in love with since she was five. And on top of that, she’d broken up with him. 

She didn’t regret it now, all of the goodbyes and broken promises, but she’d regretted it for at least four years after she’d made her decision.

But she knew that Archie was still torn up over Veronica. And it was a hard thing not to be jealous of the girl who still held Archie’s heart despite the fact that he hadn’t seen her in nine years.

But Archie’s prolonged affection could have been because of the last time that Archie had seen Veronica, she was arm in arm with Reggie, and looking very much in love with someone who wasn’t him.

Still, she and Archie were together now, and Betty had been waiting the majority of her life for it to happen. She wasn’t going to let this wedding, and all of the people that she used to know, ruin it.

The wedding. Ah yes, the wedding. Betty had been surprised, but not necessarily shocked when the cream coloured envelope had arrived in her mailbox five months ago. It was addressed to both her and Archie, and Betty supposed it was because she and Cheryl were technically related that she had gotten an invite.

Cheryl and Toni were getting married, after a long ten years together, never giving up on one another, never leaving when it got too hard. 

That was what it had said on the invitation anyway.

Betty hadn’t been sure of what to do. Yes, Cheryl was her cousin. Yes, a long time ago they’d been almost friends. But they didn’t know each other anymore. They might share the same blood, but they shared nothing else and hadn’t talked in nine years.

So Betty and Archie ignored the invitation. It stayed on their counter, and they knew it was there, but they ignored it. They ignored it because of what replying to it might bring - them back to the hellhole that they’d once called home.

Until Cheryl called. How on earth she’d gotten the number, Betty still didn’t know. But she’d called, and for the first time in nine years, Betty talked to someone who knew the person she used to be, because they hadn’t seen or met the person that she was now.

‘You should come, Betty,’ Cheryl argued, her voice sounding strangely soft despite the phone being on speaker. ‘You should come and forget that you haven’t set foot in Riverdale for nine years. Not much has changed around here.’

‘What about everyone we hurt?’ Betty argued back. ‘People hold grudges in Riverdale. My father is the prime example of that.’

‘Jughead and Veronica would love it if you came. I’ve cleared it with them. I’ve cleared it with _everyone_. The only person whose approval I need is yours.’

Maybe it was the way that Cheryl had said their names, so closely intertwined, like she’d been doing it for years, that gave Betty her first clue. And maybe the only reason why she’d ‘yes’ was because she wanted to find out why Cheryl had said ‘Jughead and Veronica’ so fondly and lovingly.

And now she was here, on the road again, driving back to the place nine years ago she’d only wanted to escape.

But Betty steeled herself. And even though it was dark, the car’s headlights lit up the sign in front of her.

So Betty drove on, into Riverdale, the town with Pep.

* * *

Thornhill looked different at night. The once great, imposing stature had been replaced by a lot of love and care now that Cheryl and Toni were in residence. Still, Betty was reminded of her childhood, when the scariest thing in the world was going up to that huge door and knocking on it, all by yourself.

But she wasn’t alone now. She had Archie, beautiful, brave Archie, who loved her in his own way, and who cared so much, too much, until it bled him dry.

Betty took his hand in her own, shivering at the lack of warmth they held. Then she raised her hand to the door, and knocked, once, twice, three times, and stood back to wait, for the Blossom who had brought her back to the place where her nightmares still existed.

* * *

Toni answered the door, wrapped in a purplish pink robe that matched the highlights in her hair. She looked surprised, although Betty knew that Cheryl had told her they were coming. 

‘You’re here,’ Toni whispered, before throwing her arms around Betty in a hug. 

This was not what Betty had been expecting. She and Toni had never been particularly close, especially given that Toni had kissed Jughead one time. For teenage Betty, it had been the worst possible betrayal.

Things were different now.

‘I’m glad you’re back,’ Toni grins. ‘And I’m sorry about your mother, and-’

‘Where’s Cheryl?’ Archie interrupts, and Betty squeezes his hand as a thank you. She doesn’t want to talk about her mother, or any members of her family for that matter. But she does want to talk to Cheryl.

‘I’m here!’ Cheryl sings, and prances to the doorway like she can’t quite keep all of her joy contained. ‘ _Ma cherie_ , thank you for that marvellous welcome.’

Betty can tell, easily, that Cheryl and Toni are in love. It’s in the way that they look at each other, so brightly, that even in the dark Betty can see. It makes her heart ache, just a little, because although Archie loves her, he’s never looked at her that way - so full of love that his heart would burst.

‘Dearest Cousin,’ Cheryl says. ‘I’m glad you’re back.’

She takes Betty’s hand, and Betty holds tight to Archie’s, and Cheryl pulls them through the doorway and into Thornhill.

* * *

What surprises Betty are the photographs. They’re everywhere, on all the walls, simple candids and portraits - the lot. Betty supposes that Toni must’ve taken them, and Cheryl has always been supportive to the people who brought her out of her dark places .

Betty and Archie are led down the corridor, toward what Betty presumes will be their rooms. That’s when she sees it, the flash of raven coloured hair and a height difference that had always been made fun of.

‘May I use your bathroom?’ Betty asks, surprised at how steady her voice sounds, despite the massive discovery she thinks she’s about to make.

‘Of course,’ answers Cheryl. ‘Second door down to your left.’

Just the way that Betty wants to go.

Cheryl, Toni and Archie round a corner and are out of sight, and Betty practically sprints over to the small table where the framed photograph sits.

It _is_ them. They look young, so young that this photograph must have been taken not long after Betty and Archie had left. 

It’s a wedding photo. Betty knows that. She can see it as easily as she can see the look that the bride and groom are giving each other. It’s the same look that Cheryl and Toni exchanged in the doorway earlier.

It’s the look of love and pride and everything else. It’s the look you have when you finally find your soulmate, the one who can make you laugh no matter what, who has memorised all the lines in your favourite movie, just because you like it.

It’s that look. 

And it’s Jughead and Veronica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first of all, welcome to my first proper original jeronica multichapter fic. thank you for joining me! i have to thank @veronicassadboi for betaing and being generally just an awesome human being and an absolute QUEEN in the jeronica fandom. YOU DA BEST!!! this fic literally wouldn't be seeing the light of day without you!! thus, every chapter is dedicated to you.
> 
> anyways, enjoy the prologue :)


	2. chapter one: strength

_nine years earlier…_

It’s dark and quiet. There is no noise in the house, not even the sound of Alice’s muffled snores coming from the bedroom upstairs. For a moment Betty considers walking back up those stairs, careful to tread on every creak in the floorboards, and taking a pillow and pushing it over Alice’s head and smothering her. 

But then she remembers her father, and his words about their shared darkness. He would kill Alice. He had _tried_ to kill Alice. 

So Betty wouldn’t kill her mother, if only so she would not turn out like her father. 

She opens the front door and steps outside. It’s still summer, but Betty can feel autumn starting to creep in. She crosses her yard and stops in front of Archie’s house. It’s silent. Abandoned. Almost like no one ever lived there at all. A ‘For Sale’ sign stands next to the mailbox, the ‘SOLD’ sticker gleaming red in the half moonlight. 

They have the money from the house, Betty and Archie, and tonight they’re leaving Riverdale, getting as far away from all the monsters that have crept out of the shadows ever since Clifford Blossom murdered his own son in cold blood. Tonight they’re driving away from mother’s who stole college funds and friends who can’t understand the darkness inside of them. They’re driving away from Riverdale in the car that they’d restored earlier that summer, before Archie went to jail, before Veronica opened a speakeasy, and before Jughead got swept up into things he simply couldn’t control.

Archie meets her down the street where the car is parked. They work silently, packing away their bags of clothes and other essentials, as well as items that they just can’t stand to let go. They’ve said their goodbyes to those who matter, Betty’s broken up with Jughead, and the ache in her heart promises to stay there forever if she’s not careful. 

And then, Archie pushes the car into gear and they’re off, into the night, to New York. To the little apartment that they’ve got enough rent for, and that they can only afford if they both get jobs on top of school. 

Archie’s hand is steady on the steering wheel, but Betty can hear the thumping of his heart. In the darkness she looks over at him - Archie, red hair and all American physique. Her hands don’t shake around him anymore, and her cheeks don’t turn the giveaway pink. He’s her best friend, and finally, after three long years, that’s genuinely okay.

Archie’s left hand finds Betty’s in the dark, and their fingers intertwine. 

For the rest of the journey, their hands stay like that, and Betty, for once, doesn’t feel alone.

* * *

Betty spends most of her night looking at the glow in the dark stars that are pasted to her bedroom ceiling. It’s something that’s so _Toni_ , and Betty chuckles in the darkness. But it feels strange to not be with Archie, when he’s the only person she’s really trusted in nine years. But she has her thoughts to keep her company.

Oh, her thoughts. They spin around her head recklessly. Jughead and Veronica? Married? It seems so strange, but Betty knows that anything can happen in Riverdale if you give it enough time. 

And now that she’s thinking about it; _really_ thinking about it. She wonders why she never thought through the possibility of Veronica and Jughead before. After all, they’d been cut from the same cloth. Raven haired, snarky, highly intelligent beings who adore literature and documentaries that you have to watch with subtitles. If Betty looks at it like that, then it’s a miracle that she and Archie managed to distract their former significant others for the duration of time that they did.

Although, deep down, Betty does know why she’s surprised by Jughead and Veronica. And she knows why she never saw it coming too. 

It stems of course, from her teenage mind, that she has since left in the dust, but the one that truly adored Jughead Jones the Third and truly did believe that he was her soulmate. And she knows that for a time, however brief, Jughead felt the same way about her. 

Archie had also believed that Veronica was his soulmate. But he’d taken longer to get over it, because Veronica had taken so little time to get over him.

And God, _Archie_. Archie hadn’t seen the picture. He hadn’t seen the way that Veronica and Jughead’s love had felt so real and raw, even if she was looking at them from nine years ago and through someone else’s lens. And his ex girlfriend and his best friend? Betty knows that Archie loves her, knows it the same way that she knows how to make coffee and hide what she’s feeling. 

But Veronica. Has Archie ever really gotten over Veronica? Betty truly doesn’t know. 

She can’t bring herself to care. She’s not jealous - how can she be? It’s not Veronica’s fault that Archie’s still hung up on a relationship that ended ten years ago. No matter what Archie feels, he’ll never leave her. Betty knows _that_ deep down in her soul and she knows because after you’ve spent the majority of your life being best friends with someone, and after you’ve spent nine years with them being the only person that you trust, you really do get to know someone. 

Still, Betty sleeps uneasily that night. Because no matter how she handles it, no matter how Archie takes it, no matter how happy or unhappy Jughead and Veronica are, there will inevitably be a fallout. And Betty and Archie have already run away once. 

She gets the feeling that if it happens again they won’t be welcomed back with open arms.

* * *

Cheryl makes breakfast, which surprises Betty, because Cheryl has never really been the type for cooking, or any work at all, really. 

But she smiles and hopes that the concealer she dabbed on this morning hides the purple bags under her eyes. 

Archie is not present for breakfast, instead preferring to go for a run around Thornhill’s grounds and beyond. Knowing Archie and his habits, Betty hypothesizes that he won’t be back for many hours.

This turns out to be lucky. When Betty informs Cheryl where he’s gone, her mouth stretches into a wide smile. ‘Excellent!’ she proclaims. ‘Veronica and Josie are coming over today to help with some last minute wedding decorations. I did think that it might be a bit awkward given the way that Veronica and Archie left things, but since he’s gone incognito, this is the perfect opportunity for a catch up session!’

Betty can hardly say no to Cheryl. It is her _wedding_ after all. 

The doorbell rings sooner then Betty had expected. Cheryl calls from the kitchen where she’s currently icing red velvet cupcakes to get the door. Hands shaking slightly, Betty makes her way to the door. She’d never thought that opening a door would cause so much anxiety, that it would either make or break her. 

She opens it.

Age has been kind to Veronica, kinder perhaps, then it has been to Betty, who knows that she’s already starting to get age lines, despite the fact that she’s only twenty seven.

But Veronica. Veronica looks older, yes, but it suits her. She’s not wearing much makeup - not the quantities she had on everyday in high school, anyway. She’s wearing a maroon turtleneck, with matching lipstick. It’s so _Veronica_ , that Betty nearly cries. She can feel the tears welling up, but she pushes them back down. 

‘Hello Betty,’ says Veronica, and her voice sounds the same, just softer, as if she’s used to talking with love. ‘Long time no see, hey?’

And Betty does cry, because it’s her best friend, it’s Veronica, who goes beyond that somehow, and here she is, standing there, cracking jokes like it hasn’t been nine years and Betty hadn’t cut her out of every aspect of her life and run away with her ex boyfriend.

And then Veronica reaches forward and pulls Betty into her arms, and Betty is greeted by Veronica’s still-familiar scent of vanilla bean. She smiles as she cries, and she knows that her concealer is running and that her mascara is smudging, but she doesn’t care, because it’s Veronica, and it’s completely and utterly worth it.

It’s only when they finally pull away from each other and Veronica takes Betty’s hand in her own that Betty notices it. It’s a Veronica ring, yes, on that sacred fourth finger, left hand, but it’s also a Jughead ring. Simple and elegant, a silver band inlaid with small sapphires. She chokes out a laugh. 

Veronica follows her gaze to the ring and swallows. ‘It’s a wedding ring, B.’

Betty laughs again. ‘I know V. I know. Cheryl and Toni have a lot of pictures in their house.’

Veronica laughs too. ‘I still don’t know why they needed to have a picture from our _wedding_ day though. Toni’s taken a million other pictures of the two of us together. Literally a million other pictures. It’s like having a personal photographer who follows you everywhere. I’m pretty sure that’s why Cheryl’s marrying her anyway.’

Betty smiles, a soft, sweet smile, one she hasn’t had on her face in such a long time. She’s okay. She finally _okay_. 

‘I missed you V,’ she whispers, and Veronica reaches out and intertwines their fingers. 

‘I missed you too B,’ she says, and they head into the house to ice an extravagant amount of red velvet cupcakes. 

* * *

Archie does not come back until after Veronica has left. Betty feels lighter, _happier_ , just from talking for hours to her. She feels as if the world has spun on its axis and she’s right back where she belongs, with Veronica as her best friend. 

Archie is different too, only he has a weight around his shoulders that hadn’t been there when he’d left. He doesn’t talk much, preferring to eat his weight in the sausages that Cheryl had cooked out on the porch on the barbecue.

Betty doesn’t worry too much. She’s content to let him be for now. 

After all, they have all the time in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hoped you enjoyed the chapter! the chapter titles come from the names of tarot cards in the major arcana :) thank you to @veronicassadboi (who is basically a goddess) for betaing this chapter! this is again, dedicated to you :)


	3. chapter two: temperance

Archie’s hands are clenched tight on the steering wheel. Betty finds herself with no words - how can you comfort someone when you don’t even know how to comfort yourself?

Their street hasn’t changed much. The house that once belonged entirely to Betty looks smaller somehow, or maybe she’s just grown up. It looks a little bit abandoned. After all, only Alice lives there now, encased in grief and the blame she’s collected from those with the right.

To the left, the Andrews’ house is different too. Another family lives there now, there is no memory of Fred and Archie and Vegas, who used to brighten the street just by smiling. 

‘We can go and visit him if you want,’ Betty says, tentatively. ‘It’s been ten years since you’ve seen him.’

Archie lets out a breath. ‘It’s been ten years since you’ve seen her too, you know.’

Betty digs her nails into the palms of her hands. ‘That’s different. You love him. I hate her.’

‘You loved her once,’ is all Archie says, turning off their street and the monsters that still hide there. 

Betty swallows. ‘Speaking of those we once loved, I saw Veronica yesterday. She’s doing very well.’

Archie doesn’t respond, if anything focusing on the road a little more harshly. His brow is furrowed, and Betty knows that this is the moment he’s been dreading the moment when he has to face those he’d tried to avoid by running away. 

‘You’re going to see her in a few minutes, Arch,’ Betty says, and covers his hand with hers. ‘This isn’t something you can pretend doesn’t exist.’

‘I guess,’ Archie gripes, squeezing her hand briefly before placing it back on the steering wheel. ‘It’ll be nice to see Jug again though, if anything.’

Betty stills a little, and wonders how she can possibly tell him about what she knows without causing a car crash. She’s still pondering when Archie pulls in the lot at Pop’s and turns to grin at her. 

‘You ready?’

Betty smiles, smoothing the fabric of her dress gently. ‘Am I ever.’

They venture into the lion’s den.

* * *

La Bonne Nuit is lit up and packed to the brim with those that Cheryl and Toni love. Betty, for some strange reason, feels the most at home now, surrounded by all things Veronica. Still, she clings tightly to Archie’s arm and tries to avoid eye contact. 

And there he is. No beanie, not anymore. Tousled hair sweeps across his forehead. And as he reaches up to adjust his tie, Betty catches a glimpse of the wedding ring that adorns his hand. 

She feels almost weightless, suspended in the air, watching those she once knew like the back of her hand do things that she’d never associated with them at all. Reggie stands with Josie, looking sophisticated and like he’d never once in his life tried to flush someone’s head down the toilet. Kevin has graduated from sweaters to clean cut suits, standing with Fangs and Sweet Pea, who look grown up, adult, more evolved than she’s ever seen them. Even Josie, who’d left for the big city before Betty had seems comfortable in a town she’d once fought to escape. 

And then there is Veronica. Who glides through the heavy throng, goddess like, hair curled into gentle waves that frame her face in a style that only Veronica can pull off. She’s wearing a deep navy coloured dress, and Betty can feel Archie go rigid, then limp beside her as he sees his ex girlfriend through the crowd, smiling at Jughead like she can’t see anyone else in the world. 

Betty is suddenly aware of everything as the world slows and all she can hear is Archie’s ragged breathing beside her. This was a bad idea, she realises. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, after all. 

‘Betty,’ cries Cheryl, appearing through the crowd like a guardian angel. ‘You made it!’

Betty tries to smile, but Archie has already turned away, ripping his arm from her grasp in his hurry to escape. ‘I wouldn’t miss this party, Cheryl.’

Cheryl gives a forced smile. ‘Well I’m glad anyway. It’s been too long since Riverdale was treated to the beauty and grace of Elizabeth Cooper.’

‘Thanks Cheryl,’ Betty tries, but her mind is outside, with Archie, with the hurt he’s been carrying around for nine years. ‘Do you think that everyone is going to be angry?’

Cheryl seems surprised, as if the thought had truly never crossed her mind. ‘Why would anyone be angry with you?’ 

Betty swallows. ‘Because of everything that happened. With my mum, _and_ my dad, and Archie’s dad.’

‘It’s been nine years,’ Cheryl says gently. ‘The people most affected by what happened left. And they’ve only just come back. You don’t have to forgive or forget anything that happened Betty. But it’s been nine years. You have to move on.’

Betty feels like screaming. She’s been in Riverdale for just over twenty-four hours and already the half crescent moons her nails craft in the palms of her hands are intimate. ‘How can I move one when the moment Archie takes one look at Veronica he’s a seventeen year old lovestruck teenager again?’

Cheryl takes her hands, gently, unfurling Betty’s fingers and lacing them with her own. ‘Maybe what happened here isn’t the only aspect of your past you need to move on from. Maybe you need to move on from Archie too.’

‘Move on from Archie?’ It feels strange to say, to even think about. ‘But Archie’s my rock, he’s my one _constant_ thing,’ Betty whispers. 

‘Maybe that’s the problem,’ Cheryl says, and steps back. ‘Take your time, Betty. You don’t have to confront every demon you ever had here straight away. You don’t need to talk to every stranger who was once a friend. All you need to do is be here. Because this party is for _me_ , after all, and that’s all I need from you.’

Betty smiles. She realises now that love softens people in a way that nothing else can. Veronica is secure in herself. Cheryl is gentle, almost wise. But it also makes those who are in it certain. 

Only Betty doesn’t feel certain at all. ‘Cheryl,’ she says, just as Cheryl is turning away to mingle with her guests. ‘I’m glad you invited me.’

Cheryl smiles, her lips a pleasant pink rather than a ferocious red, ‘I’m glad I invited you too, cousin.’

* * *

Veronica is wearing a maroon shift dress when she opens the door, already beaming at the sight of Betty. Her smile only makes what Betty has come here to do even harder than it already is. 

‘Hey B,’ Veronica says, excited and bouncy in a way that only Veronica can pull off. ‘I was thinking typical girls’ night-’

‘V,’ says Betty, and something in her voice must warn Veronica of the gravity of what’s about to happen. ‘I can’t do girls’ night.’

‘Oh,’ says Veronica, disappointed, but ultimately understanding, making Betty feel worse. ‘That’s okay. We can do it some other time.’

Betty shakes her head. ‘I’m leaving Riverdale, V. Forever.’

Veronica stares. ‘You’re leaving Riverdale? Because of what your mum did to-’

‘I’m leaving Riverdale because of _everything_ that’s happened,’ Betty interrupts, already eager to never hear another mention of her mother ever again. ‘Archie and I are leaving and-’

‘Wait,’ says Veronica, her voice not as strong and confident as it had been moments before. ‘You and _Archie_ are leaving? Archie’s leaving? With _you_?’

Betty swallows heavily, taking a deep breath. ‘We’re leaving together.’

Veronica leans against the door frame as if she has lost the strength to hold herself up. ‘You,’ she whispers, ‘and Archie. Leaving. Together. Forever.’

‘Yes,’ says Betty, and knows that this is a side of Veronica that no one else but her gets to see. No one gets to see Veronica vulnerable, not even Archie, not Hiram, nor Hermione, only Betty had that honour, and here she was, throwing it away. 

‘It’s not quite what you think V,’ Betty says, because she knows that despite the show Veronica has thrown which Reggie on her arm she still loves Archie deeply and truly, and is perhaps still a little _in_ love with him. ‘We both need to get away.’

‘And abandon your best friends?’ Veronica says, her voice sharp. ‘Does Jughead know? Does _anyone_ know?’

‘Jughead doesn’t know,’ says Betty, already dreading that conversation. ‘I haven’t told him yet. I’m going to do it tomorrow.’

‘Right,’ says Veronica, and slams the door in Betty’s face. 

Betty slumps. She’d hoped that Veronica, at least would understand. She rubs a hand across her face and sighs deeply, feeling the weight of her confession lift and crash down with the reality of what she’s doing. Is she really ready to leave Riverdale, the only home she’s ever truly known?

The sound of the door opening again shakes Betty from her reverie. Veronica stands there, holding a pendant in her hand. ‘This was meant to be for your birthday,’ she says, ‘but I guess you need something to remember me by.’

She hands the pendant to Betty. It’s a simple circle made of silver, the letter ‘B’ carved in the middle. Betty adores it immediately. ‘Put it on me?’ she asks, and Veronica takes the pendant back and strings it around Betty’s neck. 

‘I’ll never take it off,’ Betty whispers, and wraps her arms around Veronica, holding her best friend, her _sister_ in her arms for what might be the last time. ‘I love you so much, V.’

‘I love you too, B,’ Veronica says, and there are tears starting to form in her eyes. ‘You’re the best friend I ever had.’

‘You’re mine too,’ says Betty, and she and Veronica say in the circle of each other’s arms for a long time after that.

* * *

Betty fiddles with the pendant around her neck as she sits down beside Archie on the curb. ‘Are you okay?’ she asks, although she’s sure the answer is no. People don’t storm out looking lost for breath because they’re feeling absolutely wonderful.

‘Did you know?’ Archie says, and there’s a certain pulse in his voice that Betty hasn’t heard in a long, long time. It reminds her of when Archie found out about Reggie and Veronica, had come to her in a sort of mad calm, like clouds growing dark but not yet pouring. 

‘Did I know about what?’ She asks, although she knows, of course she knows. Anyone, everyone could see that Jughead and Veronica were, madly, desperately, truly in love. 

‘Did you know about Jughead and Veronica?’ Archie says, his voice a second away from breaking. ‘Did you know that they- that they-’

‘I knew,’ says Betty, carefully, treading the fragile line she needs to in order to spare Archie’s feelings. ‘They got married a little while after we left Riverdale.’

Archie swallows, flexing his fingers. Betty follows the moment, tracking his hands rather than his face. She knows that he’s hurt. Hurt by seeing Jughead and Veronica wrapped in love, yes, but also hurt because the person that he’s trusted implicitly for the last nine years didn’t tell him the one thing he would’ve wanted to know more than anything else.

‘How long have you known? Since you talked to Veronica yesterday?’

‘No,’ says Betty. ‘I’ve known since the night we arrived. I saw a picture of them on their wedding day.’

‘Oh,’ says Archie. 

They sit in silence for a little while, the kind of silence that walks a fragile line between comfortable and tense. Betty tries not to think about the people inside, those she loves and those she doesn’t really know anymore. She tries not to think of the precarious situation her relationship with Archie is already in, and wonders if Cheryl is right. Just because Archie is the only thing that’s ever felt right doesn’t mean that he’s the only thing that will ever feel right. 

Betty’s thoughts scatter as Archie jumps to his feet. ‘Are you okay?’ she asks.

Archie doesn’t answer, just storms purposefully towards the door to the speakeasy, his face creased determinedly into a frown. His strides are long, his fists clenched. Clearly there is about to be a reckoning. 

Betty climbs to her feet and hurries after him. ‘Archie!’ she cries, but he ignores her, pushing his way through the crowd like a madman. 

‘Andrews!’ crows Reggie, grinning as he spots his former second in command. ‘You look exactly the same, dude!’

‘Not now, Reggie,’ Archie hisses, pushing past him, towards the corner where Veronica and Jughead are huddled. 

Betty gives Reggie a sympathetic glance, and tries to catch Veronica’s eye to warn her of whatever Archie has gotten into his head to do.

But it’s clearly too late. Archie has reached Veronica and Jughead. Only he doesn’t answer Veronica’s startled, ‘Archie?’, doesn’t even glance in her direction.

‘Hey Archie,’ says Jughead, grinning, happier than Betty’s ever seen him. ‘You look well-’

He doesn’t get to finish. Archie’s swung his fist up, hitting Jughead square across the face in a punch worthy of someone who has fought in an underground illegal boxing ring. 

‘Archie!’ Veronica says, wrapping her arms around Jughead as he stumbles, hand pressed to his eye which will probably be coloured black by morning. ‘What the hell was that for?’

‘You,’ says Archie, still not looking at Veronica, staring at Jughead with a gaze of stone, ‘you _married_ my girlfriend?’

And Betty, who had been coming to comfort Archie, to tell him everything was going to be okay, freezes. Veronica turns to her in a silent apology, but Betty shakes her head. Here it is. The real reason you can never go home. The real reason she didn’t want to come back to Riverdale. Not because she was scared of her past, but because she was scared of what would happen to her and Archie if they did come back. And here it was, living proof, Archie, still unable to let go of a relationship that had ended for good nine years ago. Jughead and Veronica, unaware of the irreversible damage they had caused simply by being happy, and Betty, still pining for the boy who would never feel the same way about her, but still wanting to believe in it anyway.

‘Your _what_?’ Betty says, and she’s a little shocked by the bitterness in her voice, ice against the warm murmurs around them. 

‘Betts-’ says Archie, reaching for her, to comfort her, surely, but for the first time in Betty’s life she pulls away from him. She sees the hurt register on his face but she can’t think of anything but the look on Archie’s face when he’d seen Jughead and Veronica together for the first time. The heartbreak, still fresh, not forgiven or forgotten. 

Betty backs away slowly, away from the one person she’s loved for her whole life and never stopped loving. She sees regret on Archie’s face, but sees him for who he truly is for the first time in her life - a brokenhearted little boy who never had the chance to forgive or forget or move on. 

Betty turns on her heel and leaves. When she gets outside she feels the cool air meet the wetness of her cheeks. She’s crying. She’s just lost the one thing she never thought she ever lose. Betty crumbles, and as her legs give out beneath her, she smells vanilla bean and feels Veronica’s arms around her, once more holding her up when she can no longer stand. 

And Betty realises that she can live with losing Archie the way she always wanted to have him if it means that she gets Veronica back. 

She buries her face into Veronica’s shoulder and cries for a long time. 

Not once does Veronica let go. 

‘You’re my best friend,’ says Betty, turning her face to Veronica’s when her tears have finally dried. 

‘You’re mine,’ says Veronica, and Betty smiles. This she is certain of. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so the plot (and angst) thickens! again, all my love to @veronicassadboi for being an actual angel and betaing this chapter as well!


	4. chapter three: the empress

Betty stays in her bedroom for most of the next day, lying on smooth sheets and staring at the ceiling, trying not to cry or rage or throw things out of frustration. She’s never really felt like this before, not really, not like this. 

She remembers the night when she realised that her father was the Black Hood, when she’d come home and her mother had been sitting on the couch, blissfully unaware of home video they were about to see that would forever change their lives. She remembers her father’s hands around her mother’s neck, the way her mother had laughed, unafraid. She remembers that at that moment she had never loved her mother more. Alice’s brazen nature had always made Betty feel unequal, but suddenly it made her feel brave. 

That was the first betrayal, the first night she realised that sometimes people lie and sometimes other people are hurt by those lies. 

This is the second.

In a way in hurts more, because children grow up expecting to be eventually disappointed by their parents, but your friends, your lovers? They’re meant to be pure, to exist only in an everlasting sense of wonderment. And for the first twenty-seven years of Betty’s life, that’s what Archie had been. The little glow of light peeking just out of the corner of her eye, waiting for the moment when Archie realised she loved him, was in love with him, and that glow becomes a supernova. 

Only supernovas don’t last, and this is no exception. Betty stares at the ceiling for hours. Cheryl knocks on the door a couple of times, tentatively asking if she wants to help with the last minute wedding decorations, but Betty can’t muster up the courage to face any of her friends. Not after the way she had broken down in the carpark, not after she had brought Archie here, brought him here and let him ruin Cheryl’s big day, even though Cheryl had done nothing but be wonderful. 

She has to go. This was what she was afraid of. Riverdale has always brought out the worst in Betty, but she’d made excuses, time and time again - everyone had made excuses for her, as if they were afraid to let the world know that in reality Elizabeth Cooper was just a scared and broken little girl who used the darkness she’d created to feel something, anything, when pills made her numb and she couldn’t see straight. 

Yes, she has to leave Riverdale. She has to move on, from Archie, from the darkness, she has to get help, real help, find someone who can fix her, who can give her a diagnosis and tell her how to deal with the butterflies of dread. 

Betty grabs her suitcase and puts it on the bed. She’d unpacked all of her clothes the first night she’d arrived - the suitcase is empty and her belongings are strewn around the room. Suddenly full of the desperate need to come and go as quietly as possible, Betty starts haphazardly packing.

There is a knock at the door.

‘B?’ calls Veronica, ‘are you there?’

Betty freezes. Then she goes over to the door, opens it slightly and peers out. 

‘Hey,’ says Veronica, looking gorgeous in deep green. ‘Cheryl told that you need a dress for the wedding.’

Betty opens the door a little wider, but still blocks the inside of her room, hoping that Veronica won’t notice the evidence of her frenzied packing. ‘I suppose I do.’

Veronica smiles and does a little clap with her hands. ‘Then we are going shopping! No excuses, it’s been too long since B and V when on a crusade, even if it is to find the perfect dress.’

Betty ponders this. On one hand, she wants to get of Riverdale as soon as possible, but on the other Veronica had held her for hours last night on the cold cement as she sobbed her heart out. ‘Okay,’ she says, and lets Veronica lead her out of Thornhill and back into the place she thought she’d never really set foot in again. 

Riverdale’s mall hasn’t changed much. Some of the shops have gotten a paint job, some look a little more worn and torn. Some aren’t there anymore, and there are a few that Betty doesn’t remember. But all in all, the mall reminds her immediately of lazy Saturdays with Veronica, shopping and talking and laughing, before Betty discovered that her father was a serial killer and her mother had joined a cult. 

‘So,’ says Veronica, ‘where do you want to go first? I’m thinking something silvery, maybe patterned?’

‘Actually,’ Betty murmurs, ‘I haven’t eaten in a while. Do you want to find a cafe?’

Veronica looks pleasantly surprised. ‘I’d love to!’

And so they do.

* * *

Half an hour later, Betty is full of chicken caesar salad, scones and coffee. She feels the most relaxed, the most calm she’s felt since she saw the sign that said ‘3 miles to Riverdale’ when she and Archie were driving into town. 

She and Veronica had talked almost non-stop, about their lives, their jobs and everything in-between. 

They have not yet mentioned the elephant in the room. Betty wonders what Jughead’s eye looks like. She wonders if he blames her, if he’s angry with her. 

But deep down, the little part of her that has always considered Jughead Jones the Third her first true love wonders if her leaving Riverdale was the best thing that ever could have and did happen to him. 

‘How did it happen?’ Betty asks, breaking through Veronica’s tirade on the good and bad shops. 

Veronica pauses, turning with wide eyes. ‘How did _what_ happen?’

Betty swallows. It’s now or never. ‘How did you and Jughead get together? Why did you get married so young? How have you _stayed_ married for the last nine years?’

Veronica takes a slow sip of her coffee, looking amused. ‘You really want to know?’

Betty nods. ‘Of course.’

‘Well,’ says Veronica, ‘it started around two weeks after you left…’

* * *

Veronica frowns at the television screen. It’s Sunday, but it feels like it should be Friday, like she should’ve just gotten home from school.

It’s been two weeks since Betty left, and Veronica’s still feeling the aftershocks. She’s not used to being at school without her blonde best friend. She’s not used to sitting without Betty at lunch and she’s not used to feeling so completely alone.

She has Cheryl and Toni, of course, but they’re still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship that she can’t count on them too much for comfort. 

Although, perhaps most surprisingly, she has Jughead, who takes to sitting with her in class, at lunch - he even comes by to help out at the speakeasy, and Veronica finds herself feeling grateful to him on more accounts than she ever thought possible. He makes everything that little bit easier just by being around, stealing her food and making her laugh. 

But it’s clear that they’re taking Betty and Archie’s abrupt runaway a little differently. Veronica will see something that reminds her of Betty - pastel colours, maybe, and feel shaken to her core, on the verge of tears. But Jughead barely even reacts when her name is mentioned in a conversation. He’s so completely fine that Veronica’s starting to worry. 

When she finally gets him alone, to get him to admit something, _anything_ , he blows her off. When she tries again, he glares.

‘You know,’ he says, bitterly, ‘maybe I’m not “grieving” Betty, but you’re definitely not “grieving” Archie, Veronica. Don’t be such a hypocrite.’

After he leaves her, sitting alone in the booth at Pop’s which used to house four best friends, Veronica fumes for hours until she realises that he’s right. She’s spent so much time fixating on Betty that she’s forgotten about Archie. She’s blocked everything she used to feel for him, as if doing that will stop the pain she feels. But she’s not okay. She’s not okay at all.

A sob wells up in her throat before she can stop it. And then another comes. And another. And then Veronica is gasping for air as tears pour down her cheeks like rain at the end of a drought. She falls to the floor, doubled over, hugging her knees to her chest like she used to do when she was a child.

She cries for Betty, for the friendship that she thought was unbreakable. She cries for Archie, for what could have been, if the timing had ever been right. She cries for herself, for Jughead, for Fred and Alice who’ve lost their children. And she cries for the last bit of innocence she lost the moment Betty told her she was leaving forever. 

When she finally looks up, she’s not alone. Jughead sits across from her, smiling slightly, eyes red rimmed and tired. 

‘I think that we might be each other’s best friends now,’ he says, and Veronica can’t help but smile at that.

‘In that case,’ she says, ‘You want a burger? On the house?’

Jughead grins, ‘Only if it comes with a chocolate shake.’

And he takes her hand, helps her off the floor. 

Veronica doesn’t feel quite so alone anymore.

* * *

‘That was the moment we first connected,’ says Veronica, smiling wistfully at the memory. ‘It’s rather fitting that it was in the same booth where we met for the first time.’

Betty smiles. ‘What happened next?’

‘Well,’ says Veronica thoughtfully, ‘It was Kevin’s fault, actually…’

* * *

‘What?’ Jughead says, shaken to his very core.

‘You,’ replies Kevin, matter of factly, ‘Like Veronica Lodge. And I mean _like_ like. As in more than friend.’

Jughead scoffs. ‘Are we ten? I do not have a crush on Veronica Lodge. She’s my best friend. That’s all.’

‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks,’ Kevin smirks. ‘I wonder why?’

‘Shut up,’ Jughead says, and focuses directly on his laptop, refusing to look Kevin in the eye. 

‘Okay,’ drawl Kevin, too amused for his own good. ‘Hey Veronica!’

Veronica drops into the booth next to him, and suddenly Jughead finds it very hard to concentrate on the sentence he’s trying to write. She smells like vanilla bean. He tries to think about what it might mean that he’s noticed it. 

‘Sooo,’ says Kevin, drawing out the ‘so’ in a way that makes Jughead nervous. ‘You doing anything tomorrow Veronica?’

Veronica sighs, leaning towards Jughead a little. ‘No, why?’

Kevin smirks, a cat who’s gotten the cream. ‘Maybe you and Jughead should do something.’

Veronica tilts her head, musing over the idea. ‘Maybe we should. What do you want to do?’

Kevin steeples his fingers like a bad 80s movie villain, seconds away from cackling maniacally. ‘Maybe you should see a movie. _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ is playing at the cinema.’

Veronica beams. ‘That sounds great! Jughead, you in?’

‘Sure,’ says Jughead, still not looking at her, boring holes in Kevin with his eyes. 

‘Yay!’ Veronica squeals, clapping her hands. ‘It’s a date!’

She bounces away. Kevin grins. Jughead glares at him accusingly. 

‘You planned this.’

‘That, I did,’ says Kevin, which not an ounce of regret. ‘You’ll thank me later, trust me.’

Jughead does, in fact, thank him later, Veronica tells Betty. ‘That was our first date,’ she says with a grin. ‘Completely masterminded by Kevin, of course.’

‘Of course,’ says Betty. ‘So, what happens next?’

Veronica frowns. ‘Why don’t we talk while we shop? You still need a dress, remember?’

‘Okay,’ Betty murmurs. She’s never really thought about it before, but Veronica and Jughead don’t necessarily have a romance of epic proportions, but they have something that is real and pure and wonderful.

Betty could use something like that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will be a direct continuation of this one. hope you enjoyed! permanent fixture in the notes is, of course, my eternal gratitude to @veronicassadboi for betaing and being awesome :))


	5. chapter four: the emperor

Betty ends up trying on four dresses. One is red and puffy. Veronica proclaims that she looks ‘goddess like’. She tries on a couple with spaghetti straps - both pink. Veronica proclaims that she looks ‘angel like’. 

But when Betty puts on a sleeveless silver dress, which floats gently around her ankles, she feels as if she’s found the one. She steps out of the dressing room, ready for Veronica to proclaim that the dress is perfect.

Only Veronica’s not there. Instead Jughead is sitting in the chair outside the dressing room eating a bagel, sporting a rather impressive black eye. Betty feels awkward. This is the first time they’ve been face to face, _alone_ for the past nine years. 

‘Hey Betts,’ Jughead says, grinning at her through a mouthful of cream cheese, clearly oblivious to her inner turmoil. ‘Nice dress. Did my loving but extremely forceful wife choose that for you and push you into the dressing room before you could say no?’

Betty wants to laugh, but the easy way that Jughead says ‘wife’ pauses her. After nine years Archie is still calling someone else his girlfriend, is still so very clearly not happy being without her, but Jughead has moved on. Betty envies him. For the first time in her life she finds herself wishing that Archie could be more like Jughead. It scares her a little. Here she is, everything she ever wanted in her hands, and yet, it remains just out of grasp.

‘Betty?’ 

Jughead’s voice jars Betty back to the real world. ‘No,’ she says. ‘I like this dress. I think this might be the one I buy.’

Jughead grins again, so much happy then the boy she left behind. ‘It looks nice with your hair.’

Betty smiles back. It appears that she has gained back some of what she has lost - friends, at least, but not innocence. 

But then again, no one can ever get innocence back.

* * *

They meet Veronica coming out of the store. Betty’s newly bought dress gets the Lodge seal of approval, and the three of them set off towards the Pembrooke. Veronica had proposed a tour, and Betty had happily agreed, desperate to avoid Archie for just a little longer. 

‘So,’ Betty says. ‘I’ve heard V’s side of the story Jug. What about yours?’

Jughead looks confused. ‘My side of what story?’

Veronica giggles, tucking her arm through his in a gesture so natural that Betty longs for the easy days between her and Archie, before that wedding invitation had been dropped in their mail. ‘She’s curious about how we happened, Torombolo.’ 

‘Oh,’ says Jughead, looking pleased. ‘Well, it’s a long story.’

‘That’s okay,’ Betty replies. ‘Like V said, I’m curious.’

‘Well,’ Jughead, begins, offering his other arm to Betty. ‘I suppose it really began after our first official date. Completely engineered by Kevin, by the way. We went to see _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ at the cinema, and well…’

* * *

Jughead was nervous. There was no other way to describe it. He was nervous, and he hated it. Even more, he hated that it was Veronica Lodge who was making him nervous, simply by sitting next to him and occasionally digging her hand into the bucket of popcorn sitting on his lap. 

He’d been okay before they’d gotten to their seats, joking around, buying the food. But now, sitting directly next to her, smelling vanilla bean no matter where he turned his nose - he was slowly going insane. 

Veronica shifts beside him, completely engrossed in what’s happening on the screen. Jughead takes the opportunity to study her, to commit every detail of her face to memory, so that he can describe how she looks in this moment - young and utterly carefree in his novel. 

The novel. What was supposed to be about Riverdale, as a town, as a place full of dark secrets that seemed to be getting more unreal the more they were uncovered. It was supposed to be about Jason Blossom’s murder, how people were changed, and what was revealed. It was supposed to be about the summer that changed everything, the art of growing older. 

But now, instead, it is all about Veronica. 

Jughead doesn’t know how it happened, how it became a study of the girl sitting beside him rather than a study of the town that raised him, for better or worse. But it is. And somehow he can’t stop himself from sitting in the diner and writing about how the moonlight glints against her pearls and gives her face an unearthly glow. He can’t stop himself from describing her laugh, her smile, the way she flips her hair from her shoulder. 

His novel, once the thing that Jughead desperately wanted to share with the world, has now become something he is writing only for himself. Just so he can remember Veronica in all her glory, standing strong despite her world being ripped out from under her feet. 

When he writes about this moment later, because he won’t be able to help himself, he’ll write about her dark eyes shining, how he felt when she slipped her hand inside of his, and how he gripped her hand in the dark and didn’t let go, even when the movie was over. He’ll write about her smile when she’d leaned up to kiss him, and he’ll write about how he’d wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back and how it had felt like coming home. 

And later he’ll write about how they rode home on the back of his bike, how she clenched her arms around his middle, and how, speeding through the night, Jughead realised that he was desperately, helplessly, life-changingly in love with Veronica Lodge. 

And suddenly, everything would fall into place, and Jughead would know that all of the lines in his novel had been leading up to this moment - that this was the big secret that was waiting to be revealed. 

But that was later. Now, Jughead simply revels in the feeling of her small hand in his and allows himself to dream, just a little.

* * *

The day Jughead shows Veronica his novel is the best day of her life. It is also, coincidentally, the day he asks her to marry him, but Veronica remembers it most because of the written word on the page, the turning of those pages and Jughead pacing while she reads it, eager to know what she thinks and also completely scared. 

Veronica thinks that it is the most beautiful thing she’d ever read, and she’s read a lot. She’s only halfway through, but she is in love. In love with how Jughead sees her, how he weaves a little world for them with words. 

But her favourite line is the last line in the novel, a line that reads: ‘ _and the boy knelt in front of the girl with his heart in his hands, offering it to her, freely giving it up for her, as he asks her to marry him and love him for the rest of her life, because that is how long he will love her_ ’.

And when Veronica looks up, tears in her eyes, Jughead is on his knees before her, holding a ring, his heart in his hands, and he asks her to marry him, to love him forever.

And Veronica says yes. 

Later that night, as Veronica lies awake in bed admiring her new ring, she is struck by something she hadn’t thought of before. 

‘What are you calling it?’

‘Huh?’ Jughead rolls over to face her, sleepy but happy. ‘Calling what?’

‘The novel, Torombolo. What are you calling the novel?’

‘Oh,’ says Jughead, looking a little more awake now. ‘I actually don’t know. I do have a couple of ideas, but other than that I haven’t really thought about it.’

‘Oh,’ says Veronica, pillowing her head on her elbow. ‘Well what are your ideas?’

Jughead looks awkward. ‘One of them was something that Betty said to me once.’

‘Oh,’ Veronica says again, not sure of how to feel about this. ‘What did she say?’

Jughead clears his throat. ‘She said “ _you make my darkness tremble_ ”.’

Veronica smiles. ‘That’s it.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. It’s perfect! It fits the novel and the content, and most of all, it’s a little bit of home.’

Jughead smiles softly at her. ‘Even though Betty said it?’

Veronica snuggles into his chest, savouring his warmth. ‘ _Especially_ because Betty said it.’

They both fall silent, content to just be.

‘Jughead?’ Veronica whispers a little while later, twisting the ring around her finger, still unfamiliar.

‘Yeah?’ Jughead whispers back. 

‘You make my darkness tremble too.’

Jughead tightens his hold on her, and they stay that way, tangled together, until sunlight dawns in the window, heralding a new day, a new _beginning_.

* * *

‘You named your novel after something I said?’ Betty asks, equally incredulous and honoured. 

‘Yeah,’ says Jughead, grinning again. ‘Sometimes you say good things Cooper.’

Betty nudges his shoulder playfully. ‘But I’ve never even heard of a book called “ _You Make My Darkness Tremble_ ”.

Veronica sighs. ‘That’s because he’s still writing it. He’s been writing it for over ten years now.’

Betty whirls to Jughead, now definitely more incredulous. ‘You _what_?’

‘Well,’ says Jughead, ‘in my defence, I just don’t feel like the story has come to a natural end yet.’

‘And when is the end, Jug?’ demands Veronica. ‘When we die?’

‘Probably,’ says Jughead, turning to smile gently at his wife. ‘I won’t be able to write anymore if I’m dead.’

Veronica and Betty laugh, and Jughead smiles, pleased with himself, and Betty lets herself wonder, not for the first time, what might have happened if she had stayed.

She’d been letting herself believe that maybe, just maybe, if she’d stayed she would be the woman on Jughead’s arm, the one who made him laugh, the one who starred in all of his stories.

But she sees now that Veronica and Jughead would have found a way even if she had. There is something about them that just seems to fall into place, something that just seems to click. Betty had never realised that, had never seen it, always too wrapped up in her own problems to realise. 

And so when she eventually leaves the Pembrooke to return to her temporary home, Betty feels very alone. She doesn’t have Veronica or Jughead anymore, not really, because once you find your soulmate everyone else pales in comparison. 

She doesn’t have Archie, and maybe she never truly did. Maybe Betty has always been a romantic at heart, but Archie had made her believe in true love, in the fairytale, in the once upon a time. 

But you can’t have a fairytale if the prince isn’t in love with the princess.

Betty feels very alone. There is no one to make her darkness tremble. No one to make the butterflies of dread fly away. 

And so, almost in a trance, Betty walks the familiar path home, to the house that she had lived in for the first sixteen years of her life. She knocks on the door, finally ready to face her demons, or at least the demon of her dreams, who haunts her still, even now.

Alice Cooper opens the door, dressed in a sharp black pantsuit. Her hair is twisted up into a french knot. She looks composed and put together.

But as she opens the door, Betty watches that facade fall away.

And Alice Cooper, always with a sharp retort on the tip of her tongue, has absolutely nothing to say to the daughter she hasn’t seen in nine years.

‘Hello mum,’ says Betty. 

And for the first time in nine years, mother and daughter stare each other in the face.

‘Hello Elizabeth,’ says Alice. And she invites Betty in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dedicated to the lovely @veronicassadboi, who continues to inspire and encourage :)


	6. chapter five: judgement

_nine years ago…_

‘I had no choice,’ says Alice, her voice cold, once again the helicopter mother that Betty had known rather than the one who had spent her entire college fund on a cult. ‘You understand, Elizabeth, I had _no_ other choice.’

Betty clenches her fists, digs her nails tightly into her palm. ‘Of course you had no choice. That’s always the excuse, isn’t it?’

‘Elizabeth,’ says Alice, and some precious cord inside of Betty snaps.

‘My name is not Elizabeth, _mother_. My name is Betty. And it was given to me by the person who cares the most about me, and that person is clearly not you.’

‘Archibald Andrews,’ Alice grinds out, ‘Is a bad influence. He’s always been a bad influence. You used to come home every day from preschool with muddy knees because of him. You stopped focusing on your studies. You stopped taking your medicine!’

‘He is my best friend,’ Betty cries. ‘He’s always been my best friend. He’ll always be my best friend.’

‘But that’s not all you want, is it?’ Alice’s voice has dropped to a whisper, and she looks at Betty as if she has failed. ‘All I ever wanted for you was everything that I didn’t get. The perfect life, I suppose.’

Betty can hear a sudden quiver in her mother’s voice. It’s vulnerability, and all at once Alice reminds Betty of Veronica, of Veronica’s beautiful, cold facade, desperately afraid of letting anybody in, lest she be hurt because of it. 

But Alice’s vulnerability is different. She’s already been hurt, and not by Hal, not by Polly, and not even by Betty. Not by the countless betrayals that she’s allegedly been through. Something else. 

Betty cannot bear to stick around to find out what it is. 

‘You already had a perfect life,’ says Betty. ‘Even before all of this happened.’

‘But it wasn’t enough,’ whispers Alice, her voice fragile. ‘It was never enough.’

Betty turns to leave, to get away from this horrible fixture in her childhood that she cannot ignore yet cannot completely erase. 

‘I know what you’re planning to do Elizabeth,’ Alice says, and Betty freezes. ‘You won’t be happy. Not completely. Neither will Archie. It won’t be enough.’

‘It will be,’ says Betty, but the darkest part of her mind teases, _what if it isn’t_?

She leaves her mother at the kitchen table, sitting with her head in her hands. Her bedroom has been packed up, the flowered walls faded and old. 

She moves to the window. Archie looks up and smiles at her, the one thing she’ll never leave behind. 

Betty smiles back. This will be enough.

* * *

‘Sugar?’

Alice’s voice jars Betty from her thoughts. ‘No thank you,’ she says, and takes the cup of tea from her mother as it is offered. 

‘So,’ says Alice, and offers Betty a tentative smile. Betty does not return it, instead preferring to gaze out the window while she waits for her tea to cool. 

Alice sighs. ‘Why are you here, Elizabeth?’

Betty pauses. Sets down her cup. ‘I need to know why you did it. Why you did all of it.’

‘Well,’ says Alice with surprisingly little opposition, ‘I suppose it began when I joined the Farm. It changed my life in many more ways than one…’

* * *

Autumn dawns, crisp and clear, and Alice Cooper tries not to think about autumns past. Her husband, _former_ husband would be raking leaves by now, even though barely any had fallen. Her two beautiful daughters would be getting ready for school, hair tied back in perfect ponytails - Polly, a cheerleader rather than a mother, and Betty a journalist rather than a _Serpent_. Alice hisses. The perfect life, of course, could only be a mirage. Perfect wasn’t real, and yet she’d believed in it for so long that she couldn’t quite reconcile with the fact.

‘Alice Cooper?’ calls a voice from behind, and Alice turns, not even bothering to smile. Behind her stands a petite girl, youthful looking with auburn hair. She sticks out her hand, and smiles, bright and eager and Alice is reminded of Betty.

‘My name is Evelyn,’ the girl says. ‘Evelyn Evernever. I’m here from the Farm.’ 

‘Hello,’ says Alice, curious despite herself, shaking the hand that is offered. ‘Why are you here?’

‘Well,’ says Evelyn, ‘we believe that you have something we need.’

Alice frowns. She has nothing that anyone would ever need. Not anymore. ‘What’s that?’

Evelyn smiles. She looks older, suddenly, older, yet not necessarily wiser. ‘A relationship with a man we need to speak to. Rather desperately.’

Alice snorts. ‘I’m no longer in contact with my husband.’

‘But I’m not talking about your husband,’ says Evelyn. ‘I’m talking about a man named Fred Andrews.’

* * *

‘So that’s how it began,’ says Betty, swallowing her mouthful of Alice’s famous pumpkin pie. ‘You just did whatever Evelyn said?’

‘No,’ replies Alice immediately. ‘I talked to Fred. Of course I did. And he was fine with it. He agreed to do all of the groundwork required. As far as we both knew it was a simple business transaction.’

Betty stares Alice down, determined to find a flaw in the image presented to her. For years she has resented, _hated_ Alice for her actions, which drove Fred to bankruptcy and Archie to run away. 

Yet here she is, willing to listen to Alice’s side of the tale, ready to forgive and forget if it means getting her mother back.

She sighs. ‘How did you realise that something was wrong? And why did you decide to do... _it_?’

Alice puts down her plate. ‘It was because of who I was working for at the time, Elizabeth.’

She stands. ‘Wait here.’

Betty waits, but only out of curiosity. Her mother doesn’t seem regretful, or even remorseful. Everything that has happened in the past seems to be in the past for Alice. Betty isn’t sure how she feels about that. 

Alice returns. She holds a single piece of paper in her hands. 

‘What is it?’ Betty asks. She doesn’t have _another_ secret sibling, surely?

‘It’s a bank statement,’ says Alice, carefully, and hands the sheet to Betty.

Looking down, Betty realises that the amount shown to be in the account looks familiar. It prickles at her conscious, urging her to remember.

‘This is what made up my college fund,’ realises Betty, and looks to Alice for an explanation. ‘Why do you have this much money?’

Alice sighs. ‘The FBI refunded all of the money I spent moving the Farm to Riverdale. I was going to give it to you all those years ago, but before I could you were gone. It’s been gathering interest for the past nine years.’

Betty returns the paper. ‘You should have given it to Fred. You ruined his life, after all.’

‘The only person who still blames me for _everything_ that happened is _you_ , Elizabeth,’ snaps Alice, rising to her feet. ‘I did what I had to do, and it paid off. Fred is fine, but I bet you didn’t even bother to find that out before you came storming over here to confront me!’

Betty hadn’t, but that isn’t what matters to her right now. ‘You lied to me,’ she says. ‘You made me believe that I had lost my father _and_ my mother. You have no idea how much I wanted to prove that the Farm was bad because of you. I wanted to prove to you that you should trust your own daughter more than you should trust a bunch of hippy folk you’ve only just met. But you didn’t. You never have. So that’s why I’m here mum. Because I need you to know that I’m done trying to rationalise your actions. I’m done trying to figure out your motives. I just wanted a mother. That would have been enough.’

She’s crying. There are tears on her cheeks, her face is wet, and she is crying. Bawling, actually. Angry sobs that leave her gasping for breath, until Alice comes and puts her arms around her, holding her up. 

‘I hated you,’ Betty sobs, and Alice nods, smoothing the hair back from Betty’s head.

‘I know, Betty,’ she says.

Finally, understanding.

* * *

‘I hope you haven’t been lonely,’ says Betty later. ‘I haven’t heard from Polly in years. Nothing about the twins either. Or Charles for that matter.’

Alice, to Betty’s immense surprise, blushes pink. ‘I haven’t been lonely,’ she says, and for the first time Betty notices the golden band that twists around her mother’s ring finger on her left hand. 

‘You got married?’ Betty exclaims, and Alice nods, a little nervously. ‘To FP,’ she concludes. ‘Of course.’

‘Well,’ says Alice, ‘not exactly.’

‘Not exactly?’ Betty asks, and at that moment Gladys Jones walks into the room, a basket of laundry on her arm.

‘She married the _other_ Jones, love. But don’t worry, you and Jug were going to be step siblings either way.’

Betty’s mouth gapes wide open like a fish. ‘You married Jughead’s _mum_?’

‘Don’t look so surprised,’ says Gladys. ‘Your mother and I have always had a certain amount of...chemistry.’

Betty tries look completely unaffected by this. Clearly Alice is doing fine. 

‘Well,’ says Betty. ‘I suppose I’ll see you two at the wedding?’

‘We will be there,’ Alice confirms, and as Betty stands to leave she notices her mother and Gladys’ hands are intertwined. She smiles. Not exactly what she had been expecting, but a happy ending nonetheless. 

Although now she had to find Jughead and give him a piece of her mind. 

_Step siblings_.

Some things, it seemed, were inevitable.

* * *

Betty is able to walk to the address that Alice gives her for Fred. She’s nervous. She’s forgiven her mother, in a way, but she’s never held anything against Fred. She’s only ever been grateful to him. He’d sold his house so that she and Archie could flee, and hadn’t contacted them all because she’d asked him not to. 

However, when she arrives at her destination, a familiar vehicle resides in the driveway - the car she and Archie had fixed up the summer before everything had changed. 

And that means that Archie is here, with Fred. 

On one hand, she has to talk to Archie sometime. There is no point avoiding him - they live together, they have a life together outside of Riverdale, they _are_ together.

And yet the thought of facing Archie turns Betty’s blood cold. She doesn’t have a clue of what she could say, what she could do. Archie had taken one look at Veronica. One look in nine years and decided to punch out her husband and call her his girlfriend. Is that something that they can come back from.

Is that something that anyone can come back from?

She turns away. She’ll have to talk to Fred some other time. Clear the air some other time. Make amends some other time.

She turns away. This is the time when, if she’d been in New York and heartbroken over Archie she’d find a one night stand and drown her sorrows in a drink. 

But this is Riverdale. There _are_ no one night stands. 

But she can find a drink to drown her sorrows in.

She heads to La Bonne Nuit.

* * *

Betty wakes, slightly hungover. She takes a minute to get her bearings. She’s in a blue room, lying in a bed. It’s unfamiliar in daylight, but without the sun Betty is sure she could place it.

What happened last night? What had she done?

The bed shifts, and Betty realises that she is not alone. She turns on her side and nearly screams. 

‘Morning,’ says Reggie Mantle cheerfully.

Betty tries to smile.

 _Oh no_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for my darling @veronicassadboi, as always.


	7. chapter six: justice

Betty sits up and thanks the higher powers that she is still clothed - fully clothed. She frowns. She can’t remember anything. She’s _such_ a cliche. 

‘So Cooper,’ says Reggie. ‘I didn’t realise that you were such a lightweight.’

‘What?’ asks Betty, her head spinning from the sudden noise of his voice. ‘I’m a lightweight?’

Reggie nods emphatically. ‘You had like two drinks before you passed out at the bar.’

‘I was at the bar?’

‘Well,’ says Reggie, ‘you were at La Bonne Nuit. I didn’t know where to take you cause it was Veronica’s night off. I was very tempted to leave you there in a puddle of your own drool.’

‘I,’ says Betty. ‘Wait what? We didn’t sleep together?’

Reggie snorts, and Betty feels defensive. ‘It’s a natural assumption,’ she says, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.

‘Yeah sure,’ says Reggie. ‘But you and Andrews are together, so…’

He trails off awkwardly. Betty wonders if he had seen Archie’s outburst at the party. She wonders if _she_ had caused a scene last night.

‘So,’ says Betty. ‘What happened?’

‘Well,’ says Reggie, smirking, ‘you turned up at around five. Who goes drinking at five, by the way? You had a couple of drinks and fell asleep, right there at the bar. I called Veronica because she tends to know about these sorts of things - her best friends crashing at bars, that is, and she told me to take you home.’

Betty frowns. ‘But I’m at your place.’

‘Yeah,’ says Reggie. ‘I dumped you on the bed at around seven. And when I got back home, you were _still_ here.’

‘Wow,’ replies Betty. ‘So clearly I’m in bad shape.’

‘I would think so,’ says Reggie. ‘Because you talk in your sleep.’

‘Oh dear god,’ whispers Betty. ‘What have I been saying?’

Reggie chuckles, turning to grin at her. He’s handsome, she realises, and immediately tosses that thought out of her mind. ‘You kept talking about Archie. You and Andrews on the rocks?’

‘Something like that,’ she sighs. ‘We’ve had a bit of a falling out.’

‘Does it have anything to do with him punching out Jones?’ asks Reggie knowingly.

‘He called Veronica his girlfriend,’ Betty whispers, and feels her eyes grow moist. Beside her, Reggie is silent. Then he reaches over and takes her hand in his.

‘You want breakfast?’ he asks, and Betty gives him a watery smile. 

‘I’ll make eggs?’ he prompts, and Betty leans her head on his shoulder. 

‘I’d like that,’ she says, and Reggie kisses the top of her head. 

‘I’m on it Cooper.’ And he bounds away to the kitchen, leaving Betty alone with her tears and her demons.

* * *

‘So Andrews is still hung up on Veronica, huh?’ says Reggie, over a plateful of scrambled eggs. ‘Yet technically you’re his girlfriend.’

‘Yeah,’ sighs Betty. ‘I guess I just thought even if we came to Riverdale we’d be okay. But I don’t know what’s going to happen when I see him next.’

Reggie frowns. ‘I think, Cooper, no matter what’s happened romantically between you two, you’re still each other’s best friends. That doesn’t go away just because Andrews can’t get his head out of his ass and see what’s right in front of him.’

Betty feels oddly touched. ‘Thank you Reggie,’ she says. ‘When did you get so wise?’

Reggie frowns. ‘Somewhere between senior year and my freshman year of college, I would say.’

Betty laughs, free in this moment of friendship.

* * *

‘You seen your mum yet?’ Reggie asks, pressing pause on the video game they’re playing. 

‘I have, yes,’ Betty says. ‘She’s married.’

Reggie laughs. ‘Bet that gave you a bit of a surprise.’

‘It did,’ Betty acknowledges. ‘I definitely did _not_ see it coming.’

‘Well to be fair, neither did anybody else,’ says Reggie, shovelling a handful of chips into his mouth. ‘When they announced it, including their new joint surname, ‘Swansmith’, there was nearly a riot. FP was a bit blindsided as well.’

‘Huh,’ says Betty. ‘It’s kind of funny when you think about it though. Girl realises that what she wanted was right under her nose all along.’

‘Mmm,’ says Reggie. ‘Have you forgiven her yet?’

‘Forgiven who?’

‘Your mother.’

‘You know about that?’

‘Everyone knows about that,’ says Reggie, ‘even those who don’t know the full story, myself included. All I know is that Hal Cooper is a serial killer, Fred Andrews is bankrupt and Archie Andrews and Betty Cooper have fled Riverdale under the cover of night. At least that’s what the newspaper article that Alice wrote said.’

‘My mother wrote an article about our disappearance?’ Betty asks, shocked.

‘Yep,’ says Reggie. ‘It was a tell-all. Or at least it was meant to be, but Alice didn’t exactly disclose any details that weren’t already common knowledge.’

‘Wow,’ whispers Betty. ‘So no one knows the full story, not even now?’

‘Nope,’ replies Reggie. ‘Everyone’s as clueless as they were nine years ago. Except for Alice and Fred, I suppose.’

‘And me,’ says Betty. ‘I’m the only other person who knows. I’m the only other person who was there that night.’

Reggie looks over at her in confusion. ‘You were _there_?’

‘I was there,’ Betty confirms. ‘And it was a shitshow…’

* * *

Betty crouches low in the dark. She can hear her mother shouting, but it’s garbled through the wall. She can’t understand a word. All she knows is that her mother had been in a hurry to exit the house, carrying a gun and some big, fat wads of cash. 

Betty had seen enough movies and lived in Riverdale long enough to know that her mother was doing something illegal. She also knew that illegal was probably a fairly generous term to use. Ever since Alice had joined the Farm, she’d been acting...shiftier than usual. Betty had been tailing her for the past few days, but until now Alice had been acting fairly normal. 

Betty has a bad feeling. She can still hear her mother’s voice through the wall. The shouting has escalated into frenzied screaming. 

She swallows. This would be perhaps the perfect time to call someone for backup - Jughead or Archie maybe. But she doesn’t. Her bad feeling is growing. Something tells her that the time to act is now or never.

Betty creeps towards the door. It’s not closed all the way - just enough to muffle any sound. She edges it open. 

Through the gap Betty can see her mother, standing tall, brandishing the gun. There is no fear on her face, only anger. 

Opposite to Alice, with her back to Betty is Evelyn Evernever. Betty recognises her from school. What is she doing here?

In the corner of the room Betty spots another figure. He’s tall, dressed in a sharp suit. In this light he looks a bit like Jughead, only he’s blonde. Betty feels as if she should recognise him, as if she’s seen him before. 

‘You knew this _whole_ time,’ Alice spits, her teeth gnashing together. ‘You _knew_ that my son was here.’

Betty freezes, as Evelyn laughs, cold and high. ‘Of course I did. We’re not stupid, as you and Charles seem to think we are, Alice.’

 _Charles_. The name reverbs through Betty’s skull. It clicks suddenly as to why she recognises him - the photo, from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. He’s older, filled into himself, yes, but still that same little boy with that sadness in his eyes. 

Across the room, Charles, her _brother_ , steps forward and places his hand on Alice’s arm. ‘Evelyn,’ he says, and Betty’s heart skips a beat. This is her _brother_. ‘Evelyn,’ he repeats. ‘Let’s not do anything rash. We’re all adults. Let’s rationalise this.’

‘No,’ says Evelyn shortly. ‘You want to shut down the Farm. I’m not going to let that happen. We, my dear Coopers, are here to stay. For good.’

Charles laughs. He sounds like Jughead. ‘Evelyn, I work for the FBI. You can’t stop anything. This investigation is ongoing, and it will bring about the downfall of the Farm. I can promise you that.’

Alice lowers the gun. ‘We’re leaving, Evelyn. You’re nothing but an adult masquerading as a teenager. You have nothing outside of this...this _cult_.’

Evelyn glares. There is something dangerous in her gaze, something wild, something feral. Betty prepares to move, to do _something_.

It happens in a split second, before Betty even has time to react. Evelyn lunges for the gun and Alice shoots.

Only she doesn’t shoot Evelyn. 

The world slows down around Betty as she watches her brother fall to his knees. He clutches his hand to his chest. Even from this angle Betty can see red blood seeping through his fingers, staining his shirt. She feels sick. 

She gets to her feet, shellshocked. She throws open the door, runs to Alice, runs to her brother, kneels down beside them even as Evelyn starts yelling. She places her hand over her mother’s. 

Her brother looks up in confusion. ‘Who ar-are you?’ he stutters, and Betty uses her free hand to take his. 

‘I’m Betty,’ she whispers. ‘I’m your sister.’

Beside Betty, Alice is sobbing. ‘You’re gonna be okay,’ she murmurs through tears, and that is enough to send Betty moving. 

‘Come _on_ ,’ she says to Alice. ‘We have to get him to the hospital.’

Together, they heave Charles up, and Betty steers them both towards Alice’s car. She doesn’t ask about the gun or the money. She doesn’t ask about the FBI or the fact that Alice has found her son, Betty’s _brother_. She simply gets into the car and drives. 

When Charles is in surgery she rounds on her mother. ‘You knew where he was this whole time?’

Alice looks tired as she scrubs a hand across her face. ‘He came to me after he started investigating the Farm. It was all strictly confidential, Elizabeth.’

‘You kept it from me,’ Betty spits out. ‘You kept _everything_ from me. And you don’t even care, do you? You took my money - you took away my education! And you didn’t even tell me about me _brother_! How am I supposed to trust you?’

Alice doesn’t answer. She looks off into the distance, wringing her hands together anxiously. When she finally turns to look at Betty she says, ‘Your father couldn’t trust me either, not after everything I kept from him.’

Betty swallows. Alice never talks about Hal if she can help it. ‘What’s he got to do with it?’

‘He tried to kill me,’ murmurs Alice. ‘Because of Charles. I don’t even know how he found out he was still alive. But he did. And after everything that happened with Fred I almost let him.’

‘But you didn’t.’ Betty’s voice sounds hoarse to her own ears. ‘You’re still here. And so is Charles.’

They sit in silence for a long moment. 

‘Fred has to sell the house,’ says Betty. ‘He’s giving the money to Archie.’

‘I know,’ says Alice, looking off into the distance. ‘I thought I was doing right by someone for once, but…’

Betty laughs. ‘Of course you did. But you only do things for yourself.’

‘I only wanted you to get everything I didn’t,’ whispers Alice.

‘Did you ever stop to think that maybe I didn’t want that?’ Betty fires back, suddenly so angry she can barely breathe. ‘Did you ever stop to think that maybe I wanted to live my own life away from this madness? This is a small town. This is _Riverdale_. Fathers shouldn’t murder their own sons in cold blood. Mothers shouldn’t steal college funds. Mothers shouldn’t lie and keep things from their daughters and fathers shouldn’t become serial killers. This is _Riverdale_.’ Betty’s voice breaks. ‘It’s supposed to be _safe_.’

Alice doesn’t say a word. 

‘Why did you do it?’ Betty asks, suddenly desperate for answers. ‘Why did you screw over Fred and steal my college fund and keep my brother from me? Why were you there tonight? Why did you have a _gun_?’

Alice doesn’t answer, apparently content to keep Betty in the dark. 

Betty stands. ‘Tell Charles that I’m sorry.’

Alice still doesn’t say a word, just sits in silence, staring ahead with a blank look on her face.

Betty leaves.

* * *

Reggie whistles. ‘So your mum shot your brother...and stole your college funds...and refused to talk to you? Gave you the silent treatment?’

‘Pretty much,’ says Betty, sighing. ‘What time is it? I could use a drink.’

‘After last night?’ Reggie laughs, ‘not on my watch sister.’

‘Fine,’ Betty grumbles. ‘A _non_ alcoholic drink then.’

‘I’ve got your back,’ says Reggie, picking up his car keys. ‘I have a shift in half an hour anyway.’

He turns to leave, put Betty stays put. 

‘Reggie?’ she says.

‘Yeah?’ he answers, looking over his shoulder at her quizzically.

‘Thanks for today,’ Betty smiles, and Reggie smiles back.

* * *

Veronica is working when Reggie and Betty arrive at La Bonne Nuit. She looks surprised to see them together, but she doesn’t say anything, only offers Betty a smile.

At six o’clock, the speakeasy is fairly empty. Veronica says that customers start trickling in around seven. Betty is content to sit at the bar and watch Veronica and Reggie work, occasionally joining in with the trickles of conversation. 

At eight, Reggie freezes, spotting someone over Betty’s shoulder. Betty is on her fourth coke, and has decided that she quite likes the pretzels sitting on the bar.

Reggie glances worriedly at her. 

‘Is it Archie?’ she asks, and wishes that her hair didn’t look so messy.

‘No,’ says Reggie. ‘It’s someone _far_ worse.’

Betty turns. Standing behind her, wearing a smirk is Evelyn Evernever.

‘Elizabeth Cooper,’ she says snidely. ‘You look older.’

Betty resists the urge to roll her eyes. ‘Still parading around pretending you’re in high school, Evelyn?’

Evelyn frowns. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about Elizabeth.’

Maybe Betty’s in a mood. Maybe she’s high on the sugar from the cokes. Maybe she can’t stand the look on Evelyn’s face or maybe she’s spent the day recounting the night her life fell apart.

But she stands. Walks towards Evelyn until they’re face to face.

And slaps the smirk right off that bitch’s face.

* * *

Later, when Reggie has finished laughing and Veronica has escorted Evelyn off the premises, Betty will sit back down at the bar and finish drinking her coke and eating her pretzels.

She’ll laugh at all of Reggie’s jokes and he’ll smile at her across the bar. And when his shift ends they’ll find themselves pressed close together in a booth, singing along to Piano Man.

Later, Betty will feel weightless, and she’ll pull Reggie onto the dance floor. And they will dance, fast and slow, stupidly, like they’re still sixteen.

And when the music slows, or maybe they’ve just stopped dancing, Betty will look into Reggie’s face, open, honest, and _older_ and wonder what it would be like to have grown up in Riverdale. What it would have been like to have known these people without interruption. 

Later, when the lights dim, Betty will find herself in Reggie’s arms, swaying to the music. And she’ll feel his lips on hers as if she is dreaming.

But she won’t be.

And the kiss will feel like a revelation. Betty will kiss Reggie like she’s never kissed anyone before, not even Archie.

But that is later.

For now, Betty simply revels in the feeling of making wrongs into rights and the way Reggie’s lips curl when he looks at her.

For now, Betty is content to just be.

* * *

When Betty wakes up, she’s not hungover. Again, she’s in a blue room, lying in bed. This time she’s not fully clothed.

The bed shifts, and beside her Reggie mutters unintelligibly.

Betty freezes. 

Reggie flings an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, burying his face in her hair.

And Betty, for the first time feels safe.

She feels - _okay_.

She goes back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as you all know, @veronicassadboi is a heaven sent angel and i love her very much.


	8. chapter seven: the fool

Betty runs away. It’s what she’s used to, after all. 

Only this time she feels like a coward. 

Before, running away with Archie, she’d had good reason, and so had he. They’d _needed_ to get out of town. They’d had to get away from their parents and the people who they thought they were meant for.

But now? She feels untethered. 

She doesn’t regret sleeping with Reggie, not exactly. She regrets it in a way because now her relationship with Archie has reached the point of no return. She’d always known that he wasn’t sure of his place beside her - whether he was _i_ _n_ love with her or whether he simply loved her. 

But Betty? Betty’s always been sure, and maybe that’s why she regrets it. Because she’s not sure anymore, and she doesn’t know what her future looks like if she doesn’t have Archie. 

She says a hasty goodbye to Reggie, who’s far too sleepy to really pay attention to her - he gives her a smile and a sloppy kiss on the cheek, as if he’d already known that she would run away. As if he’d already thought of himself as a placeholder.

For a moment Betty wants to stay, wants to have him wrap his arms around her and wants to be _safe_. 

But she doesn’t.

Because in the end, she’s always been a coward.

* * *

She goes to see Fred. It seems like the right thing to do, after all, and she’s been putting it off long enough now. She knocks, slowly, steadily and prepares herself to face the man who was too kind, too willing to see the best in people to realise that he was being played.

The man who opens the door is Fred, Betty knows that, but he looks older. It suits him, gives him the wisdom he’d always been known for.

‘Hello Betty,’ he says, smiling at her. ‘I was wondering when you were going to show up. Would you like to come in?’

‘I don’t know,’ says Betty in reply. ‘I came here to apologise.’

Fred frowns. There are lines on his face, but Betty has a feeling that they’re from laughter. ‘Why would you apologise?’ he asks, and Betty prepares herself for the man she’s always admired to hate her.

‘I came to apologise for what happened,’ she says. ‘Nine years ago.’ 

‘You don’t have to apologise Betty,’ says Fred, smiling. ‘Archie made his choice, and I made my peace with it. It’s not your fault he decided to go to New York with you.’

‘No,’ whispers Betty, and her voice breaks. ‘I meant about my mother. And the house. It was my fault.’

‘How could it have been your fault?’ asks Fred, taking her by the arm and leading her into the house. ‘You didn’t know anything about what was happening.’

‘I did,’ Betty says, and her cheeks feel wet. This is her penance. This is the real reason she’s come back. ‘I knew and I let her do that to you.’

‘Sit down,’ says Fred gently. ‘I’ll make you a cup of tea and you can tell me all about it.’

* * *

Betty does not like Evelyn Evernever. Maybe it’s the way she looks, or the way she acts, or the way she’s brainwashed Betty’s mother and sister into joining a cult. 

She walks the hallways with a mission - to recruit those who need ‘help’. As far as Betty can tell, she’s not having much luck. It fills Betty with a savage kind of glee. 

She corners Evelyn one day, putting up posters advertising the cult she claims is a ‘self-help’ group. 

‘I know what you’re doing,’ hisses Betty, and Evelyn gives her a benign sort of smile. One that tells Betty ‘I know exactly what you’re talking about but you have no proof so I’m innocent’.

‘I’m putting up posters,’ Evelyn declares. ‘I imagine everyone knows what I’m doing.’

‘You asked my mother about Fred Andrews,’ says Betty. ‘Why?’

Evelyn freezes. Clearly she’d been expecting Betty to run her mouth about how the Farm was a cult, or something along those lines. But this she hadn’t prepared for. Betty can tell by the slump in her shoulders that she doesn’t have a good answer. Not one that will let Betty rest easy.

‘I wanted to know,’ begins Evelyn, ‘whether Fred Andrews was the type of man who would be willing to sponsor the Farm.’

‘Why?’ asks Betty, confused. ‘He’s popular, but he has no political say in Riverdale.’

‘Oh,’ says Evelyn, faking surprise. ‘You mean because he lost a rigged election for mayor?’ 

Betty frowns. As much as she’d like to believe it’s true, there is no hard evidence that the election was rigged. ‘And you know this how?’ she asks, wanting to catch Evelyn in the lie, to do _something_.

‘I just know,’ says Evelyn smugly. ‘And you would too if you looked away from your boyfriend for one second.’

Betty rolls her eyes. Evelyn’s full of shit. ‘Of course,’ she says. ‘You just _know_. I should’ve known _this_ was a waste of time.’

She walks away. But she can feel Evelyn’s eyes on her back, following her down the hallway. She doesn’t have to turn around to know she’s smirking.

* * *

When Betty arrives home, Alice isn’t there. Betty almost calls Jughead, almost calls Veronica, but she doesn’t. Instead, she creeps up to her mother’s office to do a little sleuthing. 

She finds a grand total of nothing. 

She’s stumped. Until she realises that she’s looking in the wrong place. She makes her way to the living room, where boxes of her father’s things sit piled high. Alice had bundled them all together after the night Hal had tried to kill her.

Betty remembers that night clearly. Remembers the way that her father’s eyes had shone with malice, with _hate_. She didn’t understand it at the time, but he’d had a manic energy about him when he’d been setting up the video. He’d been excited, she realises now, excited to finally show his true colours. 

There’s only one part of that night that Betty actively tries to remember, to _understand_ , and it had been as her father had grasped her mother’s throat, choking her, threatening to _kill_ her, and over and over, repeating the words like a mantra he’d said, ‘he’s still alive, he’s still alive, he’s still alive, did you know?’

Betty doesn’t know what Hal had meant when he’d said those words, but she’s not going to visit him. She can’t put herself through that kind of torture just to find out what he’d been talking about.

And besides, Hal would talk in circles, never giving her a true answer, just to keep her coming back for more. 

Betty shakes the thoughts clear from her head. She remembers that before all of the Black Hood business, Hal had been working on an article meant to expose the criminal tendencies of Hiram and Hermione Lodge. She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now she wasn’t sure what to think. Was it possible that the Lodge’s had rigged the election?

And even if they had, what was the point? And what did Evelyn want with Fred, even if he had lost the election? What did Fred Andrews, upstanding citizen have to offer a cult?

But more importantly, where was the article?

Twenty minutes later, with luck on her side, Betty finds it in a box labelled ‘Trash Hal Wrote’. Alice clearly had been quite drunk when she’d been packing the boxes. Betty supposes she would have had to have been in order to get through the process. 

It turns out that the article isn’t an article, rather a set of comprehensive notes on the ways in which the Lodge’s were taking control of Riverdale. Betty reads through each point carefully, taking her own notes as she goes. 

She’s on the final page when she sees it, the connection that ties everything together.

Fizzle Rocks. 

When she’d first heard of them she’d laughed out loud. She’d thought they were simply a knock off Pop Rocks that also served as a bit of a sugar high.

But now she’s not so sure. 

Why are Fizzle Rocks connected to the Lodge’s, and why is Fred Andrews, and to some extent, the Farm involved?

Betty makes a split second decision. She calls Archie, telling him to meet her outside - she’ll explain later. 

She wonders if she should call Jughead.

No. His mother’s in town. It’s been screwing him up, she knows that much.

She leaves a note for Alice, who really should’ve been home by now, and jets out the door to meet Archie.

She’s going to get to the bottom of this, even if it kills her.

* * *

Betty’s finished her tea, and she’s calmed down quite a bit. Her breathing is steady, and she feels unbelievably lighter, even though she isn’t done spilling all of her secrets. 

Fred is still beside her. He’s very still. ‘I think I can put the rest together by myself,’ he says, and she nods. 

‘I should go,’ she whispers. ‘I’m meeting Veronica to set up Cheryl’s Bachelorette -’

‘Okay,’ Fred interrupts, smiling gently. ‘Thank you for coming.’

She nods, slow and steady. ‘I really am sorry.’

‘It’s really not your fault,’ says Fred, grinning at her. Betty smiles back tentatively.

She feels - _okay_.

* * *

Betty heads over to the Pembrooke in high spirits. She’d gotten a text from Veronica - apparently Cheryl would be joining them to set up for her own Bachelorette’s Party. Toni was going out with Jughead and the Serpents, so they would have the place to themselves.

When Betty enters the Pembrooke, chaos is reigning. There are balloons hanging from the ceiling, various decoration boxes sitting on the floor, as Veronica and Cheryl sit at the counter, once again icing red velvet cupcakes. 

Upon seeing Betty, both Cheryl and Veronica fix her with twin death glares. 

‘Hello Betty,’ says Cheryl, and there is a glint in her eye that Betty doesn’t know what to make of. ‘Did you have a good time last night?’

 _Oh_.

‘I,’ says Betty. ‘So you know then?’

Cheryl smirks. ‘Of course I know, Elizabeth. I know everything, after all.’

Betty would roll her eyes, but she suspects Cheryl is telling the truth. ‘How did you find out?’

‘Reggie called me this morning freaking out,’ supplies Veronica. ‘I had to talk him down from his very intense mental breakdown.’

Betty winces. ‘I,’ she says again, but Cheryl cuts her off.

‘How could you?’ she snaps, pursing her lips in a very Cheryl like manner. ‘You can’t have a one night stand in Riverdale, Betty! You know that. _Everyone_ knows that. And you had to sleep with _Reggie_?’

‘I didn’t mean to!’ Betty says, but it feels halfhearted. _She_ feels like a sulky teenager. ‘It just happened.’

‘Well you need to fix it,’ says Cheryl, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘Reggie does not need to get his heart broken again. He’s been through enough.’

Betty turns to Veronica for support, but Veronica only shrugs. ‘Don’t look at me, B,’ she says. ‘I’m with Cheryl. Reggie deserves better than being tossed aside for Archie. And I say that from experience.’

Betty sighs. ‘If I don’t know what to do about Reggie, how can you expect me to know what to do about Archie?’

Cheryl’s expression softens a fraction. ‘No one’s saying you have to do anything right _now_ Elizabeth. We’re saying that you have to figure out what you want.’

Betty frowns. ‘But how do I figure out what I want?’

‘Simple,’ says Veronica. ‘Pros and cons list.’

Cheryl makes an exasperated noise. ‘She should _not_ do that. Have you never watched Friends?’

Veronica rolls her eyes. ‘Ross was a jerk Cheryl. Betty isn’t -’

‘What about you guys?’ Betty asks, before this can turn into an hours long Friends debate. ‘How did you guys figure out who you wanted to be with?’

‘Well I’ve known since I was seventeen,’ says Cheryl. ‘And honestly it was mainly because there was no one else and I just got lucky. So I don’t know what to tell you.’

‘I do,’ says Veronica, settling down on the couch and patting the seat beside her. ‘You know I almost didn’t marry Jughead?’

Betty and Cheryl both sit. Betty frowns. ‘What?’

Cheryl laughs. ‘Oh I remember that.’

Veronica grins. ‘Let me tell you, it was his idea to get married, and I was on board, for the most part. But on the day of the wedding? Let’s just say I got cold feet…’

* * *

Veronica is freaking out. She’s standing in front of the mirror, in her wedding dress, and she knows, objectively, that’s she’s beautiful. But her calm facade does not correctly summarise what she’s feeling on the inside.

On the inside she’s freaking out.

She knows, of course, that this is normal. Everyone gets cold feet on the day of their wedding. 

Everyone wonders if they’re making the right choice. If the person they’ve chosen is the right person.

But this is different.

She _knows_ it’s different.

Her stomach is churning and her head is spinning and she feels sick. 

It isn’t supposed to feel this _wrong_ , is it? She’s supposed to be nervous, but excited. She’s not supposed to feel like spewing her guts out. 

Behind her, Cheryl is frowning. ‘I’m getting Jughead,’ she says, and before Veronica can stop her, she’s out the door. 

She takes a deep breath. And another one. Then another one. She can hear footsteps behind her, and she knows she’s about to do something drastic. 

‘Hey Lodge,’ says Jughead gently, and she can’t look at him. She can’t break his heart, not here, not today.

But she also can’t marry him. 

‘Hello Torombolo,’ she replies.

‘A little bird told me that you weren’t feeling well.’

‘Don’t be cute,’ she snaps. ‘I don’t know if I can marry you.’

It comes out in a rush. She hadn’t meant it too. She hadn’t even meant to say anything at all. 

Beside her Jughead freezes. ‘You can’t marry me,’ he says slowly, ‘or you don’t _want_ to marry me?’

Veronica swallows. ‘I don’t know.’

Jughead sighs. ‘That’s not what this is about, anyway. Veronica we are _not_ our parents.’

‘What?’ Veronica stares, finally turning to look at him. He’s still wearing his stupid beanie. She really wants to burn that beanie. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asks, still glaring at the beanie rather than his face. 

‘When did your parents get married?’ He asks. ‘When did my parents get married? In fact, when did anyone’s parents get married? Straight out of high school, every single one of them. And look at how that turned out. But we are not them, Veronica. We’re not going to fuck up just because they did.’

Veronica’s about to snap, about to tell him that he doesn’t know anything, when she realises that he _does_. He’s right. She couldn’t even tell Archie that she loved him because of the nature of her parents’ relationship. What makes her think that she isn’t bound to repeat her parents’ mistakes? 

‘I,’ she says, and Jughead wraps his arms around her. ‘I never thought of it like that.’

‘It’s okay,’ murmurs Jughead. ‘We don’t have to get married.’

‘No,’ she says, feeling stronger now. ‘I want to, I do. I just need you to...psych me up or something.’

Jughead smirks. ‘What do you want me to say? You got this?’

Veronica rolls her eyes. ‘I don’t know...something to motivate me - to get me thinking of us and not of _them_.’

Jughead kisses her lightly. ‘I dare you to marry me, Veronica Lodge.’

Veronica laughs. ‘You’re not serious.’

‘I triple dog dare you,’ he whispers.

Veronica smiles. ‘How could I refuse a triple dog dare?’

* * *

Betty stares. ‘Jughead triple dog dared you into marrying him?’

‘Yep!’ says Veronica, looking superior. ‘It was the most romantic thing he’s ever said.’

Cheryl rolls her eyes. ‘I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, you can do so much better than Wednesday Addams.’

Betty frowns as Veronica grins playfully at Cheryl. ‘But how did you decide it was Jughead you wanted to be with?’

‘Because,’ says Veronica, ‘he never tried to push me when I wasn’t ready, but he was always there to support me no matter what.’

Betty sighs. ‘That really doesn’t help me.’

‘I don’t know what to say, B,’ says Veronica. ‘I love Jughead and I loved Archie. But you can fall out of love just as easily as you can fall in it. Just because you’re having a rough time with Archie at the moment doesn’t mean that you don’t love him and he doesn’t love you.’

‘No,’ murmurs Betty, ‘it doesn’t. But it doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it means.’ She stands up. ‘I have to go.’

‘Betty,’ says Cheryl, ‘please be careful. And don’t break Reggie’s heart.’

‘I’m not going to,’ says Betty, ‘I have to go and talk to Archie.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ growls Cheryl.

‘Let it go Cher,’ says Veronica, taking Cheryl by the arm and gently pulling her away. ‘Betty knows what she’s doing.’ She gives Betty a smile. ‘Good luck B.’

‘Thank you,’ Betty says, and as an afterthought, ‘I might not make it back for the Bachelorette party.’

‘Just go,’ says Veronica, and pushes Betty out the door, shutting it behind her. 

Betty takes a deep breath. She cannot run away from this.

She cannot be a coward.

* * *

It turns out that Archie is looking for her too, so it doesn’t take her long to find him. They sit on a bench in the park, with twilight settling in around them.

‘I missed you,’ says Archie, taking her hand.

Betty swallows. ‘I missed you too,’ she replies, because it’s the truth. When you spend every day with someone for nine years you can’t just _not_ miss them.

‘And I’m sorry about everything that happened. Punching Jughead, calling Veronica my girlfriend. All of it.’

‘I know,’ says Betty, and she does. ‘Listen, Archie -’

‘Wait,’ he says, turning to look at her with an earnest expression on his face. ‘I have to tell you something first.’

Betty swallows. 

‘You’re the love of my life,’ Archie says and Betty feels her heart sink. How can she tell him about Reggie now?

‘Arch,’ she begins, but Archie reaches out to take her hand, a look on his face she can’t decipher.

‘You’re the love of my life Betts,’ he says, ‘but I’m not in love with you.’

It feels like a dagger in the heart. It feels like ice in her veins. It feels like the moment FP had emerged from the woods carrying a bloodied and beaten Jughead in his arms. It feels like saying goodbye to Veronica. It feels like breaking Jughead’s heart. It feels like watching her mother shoot her brother, like realising her father was a cold blooded killer. 

It feels like all of the worst moments in her life combined into one. 

‘You don’t love me?’ she asks, and even though this is what she’d come here to tell him, she can’t quite wrap her head around it. She’d waited eight long years for this - this relationship, for Archie to love her.

And even though she doesn’t love him in the same way that he doesn’t love her it still hurts, it still stings like an open wound, because once upon a time she thought they were inevitable, Archie and Betty forever intertwined. 

‘Of course I love you Betty,’ he says, and she flashes back to the night she got her heart broken, all those years ago, wearing that pink dress, with tears still wet in her eyes, finally, _finally_ confessing her feelings and having them rejected. ‘But I’m not _in love_ with you.’

Betty looks up at him. In her eyes he’s still the boy she taught to read, the one who used to kiss her skinned knees to make her giggle. But he’s a man now, and finally she’s seeing him as he is, not as he was, not as he is on the pedestal she’d put him on.

She smiles. ‘I slept with Reggie,’ she whispers. 

Archie stares, seemingly shocked into silence. He recovers himself, even offers her a smile. ‘He has a habit of sleeping with my girlfriends.’

Betty chokes on a laugh. ‘That’s mean!’

Archie rolls his eyes. ‘So does Jughead, actually.’

And then Betty does laugh, and Archie does too, and _this_ was what she was afraid of losing. This feeling of friendship, of knowing someone else so completely that you can have your heart broken and still be okay.

They stay laughing, once again just two kids with only each other. 

Betty doesn’t feel like a coward anymore.

* * *

Later, she and Archie return to Thornhill. He bids her goodnight, and she’s still smiling when she enters her bedroom. 

Her phone buzzes in her pocket and she pulls it out. An unknown number has sent her a message. 

_hey it’s reggie. veronica gave me your number. i hope you don’t mind!_

_i was wondering if you wanted to go to the wedding as my date?_

Betty frowns at the screen. 

And then she starts typing. 

_i would love to! :)_

The bubbles come up, signalling that Reggie is typing. 

_awesome! will i see you tomorrow?_

Betty smiles. 

_definitely :)_

When she goes to sleep that night, she’s feeling something she hasn’t felt in a long time. A lightness, a calmness that washes over her.

She’s _happy_ , she realises.

After all, there are far worse things in life to be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo...two chapters to go!! hope y'all enjoyed this one!
> 
> and as always, all my love to @veronicassadboi, who continues to be an awesome human being. you da best!!


	9. chapter eight: the chariot

The morning of Cheryl and Toni’s wedding dawns bright and clear, and Betty feels peaceful.

However, when she ventures down the stairs it is clear that no one else shares that same feeling.

The entire ground floor level of Thornhill is in chaos - but it is a happy, joyful chaos. Cheryl has divided the house in two - on one side, Josie and Veronica do each other’s make up, on the other, Sweet Pea and Fangs are having a drinking contest, watched on by Jughead, who makes a big show of rolling his eyes.

Betty spots Kevin across the room, decked out in the full suit and tie even though it’s only ten o’clock in the morning. He smiles merrily at her, toasting her with champagne. 

Betty smiles wistfully - this is chaos, but it’s home. It makes her miss the days when she fitted seamlessly into this mess of excitement, these people who know each other like the back of their hands. 

The only person Betty knows like the back of her hand, even after nine years spent with Archie, is herself. And even that sometimes feels false. She wonders, not for the first time, and surely not for the last, what it would have been like to grow up here, safe in the cocoon of friendship and love. 

Who would’ve thought that she’d be the one on the outside, looking through the window at those who hadn’t thought of her in the nine years before she’d shown up again. 

Betty swallows, picks up a glass of champagne, and goes to get dressed.

* * *

The gown is floaty, silvery, and as Jughead had once remarked, sets off the blonde of Betty’s hair nicely. She feels a bit like a fairy princess as she traipses down the stairs. She wonders how many times Cheryl has done that with Toni waiting at the bottom to exclaim in delight. 

The scene has changed - the only people in the room are Cheryl, Veronica and Josie, fussing over the state of Cheryl’s hair. Betty smiles to herself, reveling in the simplicity of it all - the way none of them seem to have a care in the world, only whether Cheryl’s hair should be up or down.

‘It should be down,’ says Josie, playing with the bright red strands. ‘You have such beautiful hair, Cher. It would be a shame to hide it in the veil.’

‘Well I think it should be up,’ argues Veronica, ‘She’ll look more sophisticated that way.’

‘What about half up, half down?’ Betty offers, sliding into the seat beside Cheryl.

Veronica and Josie nod thoughtfully. ‘We could do some really beautiful braids if we did it half up, half down,’ says Josie. ‘What do you think, Cher?’

‘I don’t mind,’ says Cheryl vacantly, staring dreamily out the window. ‘I think Toni’s leaving hers down, if that matters.’

‘Are you okay, Cheryl?’ Betty asks, not liking the way Cheryl appears to only be half listening to the conversation. ‘You seem a little out of it.’

Cheryl smiles brightly. ‘Of course I’m okay, Cousin Cooper. I was just thinking about the night I proposed to Toni.’

‘Oh!’ exclaims Veronica. ‘You never did tell me what happened, only that Toni said yes.’

Cheryl smiles, so naturally that it’s jarring to imagine the cheerleader she once was, full of fake smiles and manufactured joy. ‘Well,’ she says, ‘It happened like this…’

* * *

Cheryl takes a deep breath. And another one. And one more for good luck.

She’s never been this nervous in her entire life.

Before Jason’s death she’d lived in complete isolation - she didn’t interact with other people if it wasn’t ordering them about, didn’t make friends, and didn’t give any part of herself away. Looking back, she knows that she had been lonely. Then, she’d just thought that she had a particular craving for power. The only person she’d ever truly loved - and who had loved her in return had been Jason, and he didn’t really count, because he was bound by blood to love her. 

Afterwards it had been different - she’d opened herself up, bit by bit, and she’d come to realise that she could flourish in the sunlight, she could make friends, she wasn’t _unloveable_.

She’d let Veronica in first, because Veronica was like her - caught in a trap of her own making. And Veronica could flip the switch as quickly as Cheryl could - one minute they were fighting and the next they were crying in each other’s arms. Veronica saw through Cheryl’s walls and defenses because they were just like her own. 

And so Cheryl let Veronica in. 

After Veronica it had been Jughead, slowly cautiously, because Jughead had seen a part of her that no one else had - and he’d felt the guilt that she had too. _Kindred spirits_ , he’d called them once. At the time, she’d laughed, but he’d been right. It had been gradual, but Cheryl had managed it eventually. 

And so she’d let Jughead in. 

Kevin and Josie had been let in too, when Cheryl had realised that people didn’t have to understand your every flaw to love you unconditionally. Even the Serpents had wormed their way into Cheryl’s still beating heart, through jokes and easy familiarity that not long ago would’ve made Cheryl roll her eyes and grimace. 

But none of them had felt quite like Toni. 

Toni entered Cheryl’s life when Cheryl was at the lowest point she’d been since Jason had died. And Toni had seen what no one else had, that deep beneath the surface - a study of scarlet lips and barbed insults - lived a lonely girl who desperately needed a friend.

Toni had been that friend, until she’d become something more.

Cheryl had never known quite what to do with the barrage of emotions she felt when it came to Toni. She’d never known that something could excite and terrify you at the same time.

Which is how she feels right now. 

Cheryl checks her pocket again, just to make sure that the ring is still there, nestled in safe. She and Veronica had spent weeks picking out the perfect ring - and Cheryl really does think that it is the perfect ring. 

It’s a blue topaz, something that Cheryl is sure Toni will find endlessly amusing. The jewel nestles in the middle of a circle of tiny, circular diamonds. It is something that Cheryl would never wear, which is precisely why it’s perfect. 

She tucks it away again safely. If Toni says yes, and Cheryl really, _really_ hopes she does, their wedding is going to be the talk of the town. Even more so than when Alice and Gladys got married and shocked everyone into submission from the sheer ferocity of their glares. Cheryl thinks that Jughead is still scarred from _that_ revelation. 

Cheryl starts from her daydream as Toni enters the room, looking ethereal and goddess like despite her old sweater and ripped jeans. Cheryl feels the familiar swell of love and pride as she takes her beloved in. It’s not everyday that you happen to fall in love and have it last a lifetime, after all. 

‘Hey Cher,’ murmurs Toni, smiling, completely unaware of what is to come. She seems tired - her job at the White Wyrm has been wearing her down lately. Even her hair reflects her present mood - glossy and brown, with not a pink or purple stripe in sight. 

‘Hi TT,’ Cheryl answers. ‘Would you come and sit?’

Toni quirks an eyebrow quizzically as Cheryl motions with her hand the chair opposite to her. But she sits anyway, always willing to go the extra mile to make Cheryl happy. 

‘Toni,’ Cheryl begins. ‘No, Antoinette-,’

‘Cheryl,’ Toni interrupts, ‘what’s going on? You’ve been acting weird all week. I’m starting to get worried. Veronica and Jughead both said you were fine, but I know you. And something’s up.’

‘You’ll see,’ replies Cheryl, and runs through her speech in her mind.

She swallows. It feels as though every single moment in her life has been leading up to this one, this proposal, this confirmation of love. She only has one shot to make it perfect. She’s not going to blow it because she’s _nervous_. Blossoms don’t _get_ nervous.

She takes a deep breath. 

‘Toni,’ she says. ‘When I first met you I wasn’t certain of who I was, or who I was going to be, only who I was supposed to be. Being the daughter of the richest people in town meant that I thought I couldn’t trust anyone to genuinely want to be friends with me - and so for the longest time Jay Jay was my only true friend. I started to let other people in - slowly, after his death, but it never really meant what means for other people - I still kept everyone at arm's length because I thought that they could never really understand me. Veronica came the closet, but even she wasn’t the perfect mirror to my soul. 

‘But that was before I met you. You came into my life and you changed everything, simply by daring to ask me questions that no one had ever asked me before. I felt my worldview change just by talking to you - and meeting you was the first time I realised that everything in life is not set in stone, that I didn’t have to turn out exactly like my parents. And this realisation, as much as it thrilled me, it scared me too. I pushed you away, again and again. It was only when we went and saw that movie - and I was already feeling vulnerable that I thought it wouldn’t be so bad to have someone know my secret, to have someone know me, heart _and_ soul.’

She takes another deep breath. ‘I think I knew when I was a teenager, honestly. I’ve known for such a long time that it feels like second nature to say it. Toni Topaz, you are the love of my life and I genuinely never thought that I would be as lucky as I am now - to have somehow bewitched you into falling in love with me too.’

‘Cher…’ Toni says, smiling, her eyes a little wet. 

‘I love you,’ Cheryl whispers. ‘I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Marry me Toni. Marry me and love me forever, because that’s how long I’ll be loving you.’

Toni’s sobbing, but they’re happy sobs, Cheryl thinks. ‘You want to marry me?’ she asks.

‘Of course I want to marry you TT,’ Cheryl says. ‘I’ve wanted to marry you for such a long time I almost forgot I never asked you if you wanted the same thing. ’

‘Of course I want the same thing Cher.’ says Toni and Cheryl lets out a sound that is half sob, half laugh. ‘I want to marry you too. I _will_ marry you!’

‘Thank god!’ Cheryl exclaims - and then: ‘I forgot to get out the ring!’

‘You got me a ring?’ Toni says, and Cheryl pulls it out of her pocket.

Toni laughs, pushing it down her finger. ‘It’s a topaz.’

‘Only the best for my beloved,’ says Cheryl, and when she kisses her fiancee, the love of her life, her _soulmate_ , it feels as though the stars have aligned and the universe has taken pity on her. It feels as though the sun is shining and the birds are singing and the sky is blue.

Cheryl feels utterly, and completely content. 

‘Cheryl Topaz,’ she sighs blissfully, ‘I like the sound of that.’

‘Well I’m going to be Toni Blossom,’ says Toni, sticking her tongue out and laughing.

It is the most beautiful sound that Cheryl has ever heard. 

And this is the most wonderful moment that she can imagine.

Though she never would’ve imagined she’d be this lucky, Cheryl smiles and smiles until her jaw aches. And then she goes out to the garden.

* * *

Jason’s grave is well tended to and immaculately cared for. Every week Cheryl lays new flowers on it, perfect roses and white lilies, Jason’s favourite combination. They’re a little wilted at the moment, but Cheryl will replace them tomorrow.

Right now, all she wants to do is talk to her brother. 

‘Hi Jay Jay,’ she whispers. ‘I asked Toni to marry me tonight. She said yes, you know. She wants to marry me too.’

If Jason were still here, this is the moment where he would smile and shake his head, Cheryl is sure of it. He’d be laughing, she thinks, laughing at the idea that anyone _wouldn’t_ want to marry her, because that’s the type of brother he had been.

‘I’m really happy Jay Jay,’ she says. ‘I didn’t think that I could be this happy after you died. But I am. And I know that it’s taken me a long time to get here, to get to this place where I can miss you without breaking down, but I’m here now.’

She pauses. In her head she can see her brother looking at her quizzically. In her mind he’s never aged, and it’s strange to talk to a teenager at twenty six years of age. 

‘I might not come out here as often,’ Cheryl says in a gasp. ‘I might be starting to truly let you go. And don’t get me wrong, Jay Jay. I’ll always love you. And I swear that I will _never_ forget you. But I think you deserve to be at peace. And I think I do too.’

The ghost of Jason, the one who lives inside of Cheryl, nods thoughtfully. If he could talk, or if he was real at all, Cheryl knows that he would be proud of her right now. 

Cheryl barely remembers the day that she knew Jason was dead, and not just presumed dead, like in the plan they’d concocted. 

But she remembers the feelings. Not grief, not at first, but the building of emotion, the realisation that something had gone terribly wrong.

But most of all she remembers the confusion, because this wasn’t part of the plan. Jason was only pretending to be dead, and any moment now he would call her and let her know that everything was still on track and absolutely fine. 

And that was when the grief had come, when the call didn’t. That was when she cried, for the brother she knew and loved and for the loneliness she would surely now endure. 

Cheryl had never had dry eyes that first week. She didn’t sleep and she was always on the verge of tears. 

Not until the funeral does she get a sense of closure. Not until she realises that her brother is no longer here does she get a sense of closure.

As the years past, the more people told her to let Jason go. To stop holding onto his ghost. 

But Toni never had. 

Toni had told Cheryl that maybe Jason would like some new flowers every week, that maybe he would like to hear about her life. And when Toni had moved into Thornhill, officially, Toni had talked to Jason about it, asking his permission.

Cheryl once asked Toni why she was so accepting of Jason’s place in Cheryl’s life. All Toni had said in return was: ‘he’s part of you, for better and for worse.’

And so Cheryl stays in the garden until morning, watching the stars as they dance across the sky, sitting in silence with her brother, Toni’s words echoing in her mind. 

Some things you should not have to let go.

* * *

By the time Cheryl has finished telling her story, her hair has been twisted and poked and prodded into perfection. Betty’s eyes feel a little damp, and Veronica and Josie are smiling wistfully. 

Cheryl is still looking off into the distance but Betty realises something that she hadn’t realised before - Cheryl is _content_. She’s at peace, she’s _happy_. 

_How is it_ , Betty thinks, _that I never got the memo that the only thing you should strive to be in life is content_?

‘Do you still talk to Polly?’ Cheryl asks, suddenly, and Betty blinks back into the present. 

‘I haven’t talked to her in years,’ she adds, and Betty sighs. 

‘Neither have I,’ she replies. ‘Polly never really got over the whole “Hal was a serial killer” thing. She preferred to live never facing the truth, and I honestly cannot say I blame her.’

Cheryl sighs. ‘Everytime she brings the twins to visit Alice, she jets off quicker than she came. I get to see them quite often, but I haven’t seen her in even longer than I last spoke to her.’

Betty frowns. ‘She’s talked to my mother?’

Cheryl nods, back to daydreaming. ‘They talk quite a lot, I believe.’

Betty stands abruptly. ‘I have to go.’

‘You okay B?’ Veronica asks, sparing her a worried glance, caught up in arranging Cheryl’s veil.

‘Yes,’ says Betty. ‘I just need to go and talk to somebody. I’ll be back in time for the ceremony, though.’

Cheryl waves a hand. ‘Do what you have to do, Cousin Cooper. But if you miss my wedding, I _will_ be forced to take drastic action. I didn’t drag you all the way from living a lie in New York so you could skip the _one_ event I wanted you to attend.’

Betty barely registers the words. She’s too busy planning what she’s going to say to Alice Cooper.

It’s time to end the lies, once and for all.

* * *

Alice Cooper is once again the picture of the perfect housewife, groomed and neat and tidy when she opens the front door and beckons Betty in. She looks relaxed, smiles smoothing out her frown lines. Betty has never seen her mother like this, and if she had to guess she’d say that her new stepmother had a lot to do with it. 

‘Ah, Elizabeth,’ says Alice, smiling brightly. ‘You look lovely, dear.’

‘Thank you,’ Betty replies awkwardly. ‘So do you.’

Alice raises an eyebrow. ‘Can I do anything for you Elizabeth, or did you simply want to drop in to say hello before the wedding?’

‘Yes,’ Betty says, taking a deep breath. ‘Did you join the Farm for Polly?’

Alice frowns. ‘Where did you get that idea, Elizabeth? It’s rather preposterous, isn’t it?’

Betty clenches her fists. ‘Today I learnt that you see Polly quite regularly. That didn’t make sense to me, because I haven’t seen Polly since she was still knee deep in the Farm, trusting those she shouldn’t because she didn’t know where to go after Jason’s death and you locked her up in an _asylum_.’

Alice swallows. ‘I see Polly quite a bit, but I don’t see why that’s relevant. She’s my daughter after all. Not every child of mine leaves for nine years and doesn’t even call once.’

Betty ignores the jibe. Her mother is deflecting. ‘You know exactly why it’s relevant. You joined the Farm so that you could rescue Polly, didn’t you? That’s why you still see her now, her _and_ the twins. Because you rescued her from the Farm and now she trusts you with her life, with the lives of her children.’

Alice still doesn’t answer, seemingly frozen in place. 

‘It was for Polly, wasn’t it?’ Betty asks. ‘All this time I thought you just didn’t care about any of us, but it was for Polly. It was all for Polly. I thought you were crazy! You let me think that you were crazy! You let me think that you’d given up, but instead you were just gearing up to fight again. Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve understood. Surely you know that. I would’ve understood.’

‘I couldn’t,’ says Alice, her voice broken. ‘I couldn’t tell you Betty.’

‘Why not?’ Betty asks, and angrily wipes away the tears in her eyes. ‘Even now you can’t tell me?’

Alice sighs and folds herself into the nearest armchair. ‘I was working for the FBI, Betty.’

Betty almost scoffs, but her mother’s resigned manner stops her. This is the last thing she could’ve possibly imagined was going on behind the scenes. ‘How did you even get in contact with the _FBI_?’

‘Your brother,’ replies Alice. ‘Charles works for the FBI.’

Betty’s eyes bulge out of her head. ‘ _Charles works for the FBI_?’

Alice nods. ‘He recruited me to infiltrate the Farm. He told me that Polly was in far too deep, that she was losing control of her life - slowly, but steadily. And after all that happened with Hal I couldn’t lose one of my children. I’d just gotten my son back - and he wanted me to help him help my daughter. How could I say no? How could I _want_ to say no?’

‘All this time,’ Betty murmurs. ‘I thought that you’d just given up. But everything that happened just made you fight harder.’

Alice smiles. It’s a little bittersweet. ‘You don’t give up on your children, Elizabeth. Even when they think they don’t need you anymore, you don’t give up.’

Betty swallows. ‘I thought it was my fault, you know. I thought that the night I gave that speech triggered something in Hal. I thought that me saying _we must do better_ made him remember his promise. And I always thought that his _betrayal_ drove you into the Farm. I thought I destroyed my mother and sister’s lives because I couldn’t choose my words properly.’

‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Alice says, her perfectly manicured nails providing a sharp contrast to Betty’s bitten down ones as she takes Betty’s hands. ‘How were you to know what would happen? And remember, Elizabeth, you were only sixteen. How were you supposed to stop it?’

‘But,’ Betty begins, ‘So many people were hurt because of what Hal did. I hated you for years because you stole my future from me. And I hated Polly too.’ 

Alice sighs. ‘You have the right too Betty, you always have, and you always will. But I missed my daughter.’

Betty smiles, the first one that feels unburdened in a long, long time. ‘And I missed my mum.’

* * *

Betty sits and ponders for a while. The ceremony isn’t due to start for another hour, so she has the time.

For the past nine years of her life, she’s lived in a little bubble, where only she and Archie exist. But the appearance of that cream coloured envelope had changed everything, and now Betty knows that she can never go back to the way she was before, living a dream. Now, she must face reality - her world has changed, and so has she.

But perhaps that is no longer a bad thing. 

Later, Betty will tell Veronica and Jughead the whole story, the story of why she and Archie left town nine years ago. She will tell them of the way that Evelyn Evernever approached Alice Cooper about a deal to be made with Fred Andrews, and she will tell them, that in her grief, Alice set in motion a series of events that would forever change Riverdale.

Betty will tell them of the way the Farm sucked her mother into further despair, how their dealings with Fred Andrews put gray into his hair. She will tell them of the late nights she spent trailing Alice through the dark, following her into meetings and listening to the plans that they had to change Riverdale. She will tell them of the things they wanted to build - what they wanted _Fred Andrews_ to build. 

She will take Veronica’s hands and tell her about how Hiram Lodge introduced Fizzle Rocks to Riverdale, with the express purpose to weaken those who might stand against him - and how, in a desperate bid to stop him, Fred Andrews paid off the Farm to stop distributing them. 

She will tell them of how Hiram, in an act of mercy - and having destroyed the one person strong enough to stand against him - agreed to stop the flow of Fizzle Rocks into Riverdale. 

Betty will talk of the moment she realised that Alice had other plans for the Farm, the moment she realised her mother was hiding something from her. She will tell them of the way that Archie had gone crazy when he’d realised that his father had gone bankrupt in the attempt to save the town that he loved. She will tell them of her promise to Archie - that she would stop her mother, and stop Evelyn Evernever, and bring about the downfall of the Farm once and for all. 

And when she gets to the most painful part, long into the night, she will lean her head on Veronica’s shoulder and talk about the way that her brother’s blood had looked splattered on the pavement. And she will talk about her mother’s silence, her sister’s smug smiles and how she had no idea what they could mean. 

And she will tell them about the night when Archie told her that he was running away - that he was giving up on Riverdale, the town that housed too many demons. How he realised that if Riverdale could ruin Fred Andrews then he didn’t have a chance. 

And she will tell them about the way she begged him to take her with him, the way she’d felt an immense sense of relief when he’d said he would. 

She will tell them of the events of that very morning, when she’d realised that Alice had done what she’d had to in order to protect her children, her alliance with the FBI in order to take down the Farm and save Polly’s life. 

And when the last secret had finally been spoken aloud, Jughead and Veronica will take Betty’s hands in their own and smile, finally content with all they know and all they do not. 

And Betty will feel the lightest she has ever felt. It will be as if all of her demons have spread their wings and learnt to fly, leaving her alone and free of hate and worry. 

But that is later. For now, Betty ponders her future in Riverdale. She sits in silence and wonders if she should stay, or if she should go. 

It turns out you always have more to lose than you know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more to go folks!!


	10. chapter nine: death

Gentle strains of piano trail through the room as the procession starts. Betty, nestled into Reggie’s side, smiles as the beginning melody of Pachelbel’s Canon plays. 

Fangs and Kevin walk arm in arm down the aisle, followed by Sweet Pea and Josie. Jughead and Veronica enter, looking as blissfully happy as they might if this was their own wedding again.

Two red headed children - whom Betty can only assume are the unfortunately named Juniper and Dagwood - scatter cherry blossoms down the aisle as the bridal march begins.

Cheryl and Toni have chosen to accompany each other down the aisle and they are resplendent in their ivory dresses. But it is the joy, the happiness that is clear on their faces that makes them truly radiant. 

Fred is officiating the ceremony - he winks at Betty when she smiles at him. 

‘We are gathered here today,’ he begins, ‘to witness the union of two of Riverdale’s most beloved residents, Toni Topaz and Cheryl Blossom, who shall henceforth be known as Toni Blossom and Cheryl Topaz, as per their request.’

He beams down at the glowing brides, the picture of a proud father. Fred always did take all of the children under his wing, Betty muses.

‘Cheryl and Toni have prepared vows that they would like to share with you during the exchanging of rings. Toni, if you will?’

Jughead hands Toni a ring, and she clears her throat. 

‘Cheryl,’ starts Toni. ‘When I first met you, I was just a girl from the Southside, who had two loves - the Serpents and photography. But when I met you, I knew that I had found a third. Everything you did was so effortless, and I couldn’t really believe that we existed on the same planet, let alone went to the same high school. You kept pushing me away, and yet for some reason I kept pushing back. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, to be so enamoured with someone I barely knew. But I know now that it was love - I was in love with you before I even realised it. And sitting in a dark cinema watching a movie - and God, I don’t even remember which movie it was - but sitting there, and feeling you take my hand, it made everything worth it. The feeling was almost euphoric. And I think that was when I realised that I was gone. Forever. 

‘So this is my vow to you - I vow to try my best to make you feel the way you made me feel that night for the rest of your life. Because you, Cheryl Blossom, you deserve that.’

Cheryl wipes the tears from her face as Toni slips the ring onto her finger. Betty feels a little teary herself. She reaches over to take Reggie’s hand. He smiles at her. 

‘Toni,’ Cheryl says, taking the ring Veronica’s offering her. ‘Where do I even start? I must admit that I wasn’t the fondest of you when we first met - you made me question things I didn’t think I had the right to question. And you made me feel things that I had never felt before and those feelings scared me. They still do, but now I suppose it’s in a good way. Toni, you gave me something that I will be forever grateful for - a second chance. You opened up my eyes and showed me that I could still live, even after Jason’s death. That I _had_ to live, if not for me, then for him. And that was because of you, and your beautiful ferocity, and your way of not backing down until you’ve gotten what you came for.’

Cheryl smiles gently, taking Toni’s hand in her own. ‘You’ve taught me so many things, Toni, but perhaps the most important thing I’ve learnt from you is how to stand on my own two feet. And it’s because of what you’ve done for me that I know I _could_ live without you. But I don’t want to. And I think that’s how I know, really, truly know it’s love. I love you Toni Topaz. And I’m not ever leaving you.’

Cheryl slides the ring onto Toni’s finger. Both women are crying freely, but smiling despite the disarray of their makeup. 

Fred clears his throat. ‘Then I do declare the two of you partners for life, in sickness and in health, in love and in hate, in black and in white. I declare you married, and Cheryl, my dear, you may now kiss the bride.’

The band starts up again as Cheryl and Toni clasp each other’s cheeks and kiss. Veronica and Jughead are cheering, and Betty is smiling so widely that she feels her cheeks may burst. Across the room Archie wolf whistles and grins at Betty when she catches his eye. 

The whole congregation cheers as Cheryl and Toni join hands in ecstasy and make their way out of the room. 

And Betty realises that she should stay. 

Because this is enough.

* * *

The reception is a rather special occasion for Betty. Reggie whirls her around the dance floor, and she again feels like a fairy princess spinning in her silver dress. 

At around nine o’clock she spots Archie making his way over to where Jughead and Veronica are giggling and swaying on the dance floor.

She excuses herself and Reggie, spotting the scene, mouths ‘good luck’. Betty snorts and squares her shoulders.

It is only when she reaches her friends that she realises that this is the closest that the four of them have been to what they used to be since she and Archie arrived in town a week ago. This is the first time that she thinks they’ll resemble the people they once were, sitting in a booth at Pop’s - Jughead eating too many fries, Veronica daintily sipping her milkshake and Archie regaling them with tales of the football food while Betty watches on and laughs, secure in the knowledge that these people in this booth with her will be her best friends for the rest of her life.

Things have changed since then, it’s true, but Betty thinks she might have a chance to get her best friends back tonight - not the way they used to be, but the way they could be - grown up, but not grown apart. 

When she reaches them, Archie is holding out his hand for Jughead to shake as Veronica beams. Jughead wraps him into a hug instead, and Betty feels a stirring of love in her heart at the sight of her two oldest friends finally mending their broken bridges. 

‘I’m telling you man,’ says Jughead, grinning. ‘You should’ve seen the look on Pop’s face when we told him you were back! I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s here tonight, ready to spoon feed you a burger and fries.’

Betty joins in with the laughter as Veronica links their arms. ‘You want to go find Pop with me? I’m ninety five percent sure that Jughead’s not joking.’

Betty squeezes Veronica’s arm. ‘I would, but I don’t want to miss this.’

‘Alright,’ says Veronica, smiling gently. ‘I’ll be back!’

Betty rejoins the conversation and frowns as Jughead enthusiastically explains to Archie that he’s finished his novel.

‘I don’t understand,’ she says, ‘A few days ago Veronica made it sound as though you would never finish it.’

Jughead smiles, looking surprisingly misty eyed. ‘Let’s just say that I found an ending I had to use.’ 

Betty shakes her head, still confused, while Archie rolls his eyes. ‘Still talking in riddles then, huh Jug?’

‘You know it Andrews,’ Jughead replies, and it’s as though they haven’t been apart for nine years, as if Archie hadn’t given Jughead a black eye only days before. 

Betty smiles. They’re going to be just fine.

* * *

She finds Reggie a little while later, chatting to Josie and Sweet Pea. He’s grinning, and his smile only widens when she drops into the seat beside him.

‘The Core Four are back together again, huh?’

Betty scrunches up her nose. ‘The Core Four?’

Josie laughs. ‘That’s what we used to call you guys, back in the day. You guys used to be so tight _and_ you were involved in everything. It made sense for you to have a nickname.’

‘Oh,’ says Betty. ‘I guess that makes sense. Kind of. And I guess we are,’ she says, turning to face Reggie. ‘Jughead and Archie seem to have mended their riff.’

‘About time too,’ drawls Sweet Pea. ‘Although I would have liked to see Jones with another black eye.’

Josie elbows him in the stomach but Betty laughs. It’s nice to spend time with people who know her - or at least know a part of her. It’s nice to exist in the same place as those she loves without having to prove herself. 

Betty sighs. For the first time in forever, or maybe just _ever_ , she’s content. She has her best friend in the world back. She has the support of her mother, and she supposes, grinning wryly, her stepmother as well. All is well in the world of Betty Cooper.

It’s been a long time since she’s been able to say that, she realises. But it’s true. 

And it’s the best feeling in the world.

* * *

Later, Veronica will excitedly whisper in Betty’s ear that Jughead has finally finished his novel and sent it off to a dozen publishers. 

When Betty asks what made him change his mind about writing it for the rest of his life, Veronica winks and tells her that he found the right ending. 

And Betty will roll her eyes at Veronica’s answer, but she’ll be bursting in the inside, desperate to know what has driven Jughead Jones the Third, a well-known and certified procrastinator to finish his ten year long novel.

Later she’ll find out when Jughead makes an announcement, a little bit drunk but with Cheryl’s permission, _of course_ , that Veronica Cecelia Lodge, the love of his life, is _pregnant_ , and that he really hopes the baby is his. 

Betty will let out an excited squeal and throw her arms around Veronica and then immediately panic about whether doing so would hurt the baby. And Veronica will cry happy tears as Cheryl spins her around and Toni punches Jughead in the arm before wrapping him in a hug.

And Betty will join Veronica in her tears when Veronica asks her if she’ll be a godparent - along with Cheryl and Toni...and Archie.

Archie will smile and get a little teary himself, but he’ll be happy, just like Betty.

And Betty and Archie will dance around the floor, laughing like they once did when they’d moved into their first apartment in New York, when Betty’s hair was a little shorter, and Archie didn’t play guitar quite as much.

It’ll be like everything has come full circle - Betty and Archie back in Riverdale again, smiling and laughing like teenagers. 

Archie will pick up a guitar and join Josie on stage to serenade Cheryl and Toni in one last dance.

And later Betty will rest her head on Reggie’s chest and they’ll sway in time to the gentle chords Archie’s playing on his guitar. 

She’ll think to herself, _you make my darkness tremble_. She knows that one day she’ll say it out loud. 

But that is later. For now Betty is content to listen to the stories she hasn’t heard before and laugh at the jokes she has.

This will be enough, she realises. 

No. 

It _is_ enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and: there it is, my first multi chapter jeronica fic. thank you to everyone who read, commented and left kudos!! you guys are seriously the best. 
> 
> and where would i be without @veronicassadboi? cara, it's nearly impossible for me to find the words i need to sum up how much you reading and betaing this has meant to me, so i'm not going to. just know that everything you've done has been invaluable and that i could not have done it without you. thank you for waiting seven months to get the second chapter, for sticking with me even when i told you that i'd written something terribly boring. thank you for inspiring me pretty much every day to continue writing this fic. thank you for reading it in the first place. thank you for the beautiful edit (which i adore, by the way) and thank you for being here. i love you so, so much. at this point to me you're basically transcendent. i can't wait to start the next journey with you. 
> 
> \--
> 
> and, if you've stuck around long enough, a glimpse into my next multi chapter: the jeronica modern royalty au that absolutely nobody asked for, which will probably post sundays if i stop procrastinating.
> 
> Summary: As an American actress, Veronica Lodge exists an entire spectrum away from the British monarchy and its golden boy, Prince Forsythe Pendleton Jones III, affectionately known as Jughead. So she doesn’t expect to become his friend. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him either.


End file.
